FossilMorph: A new tool for fossil automatic measurement and statistical analysis

We present FossilMorph, a user-friendly and open access software that offers rapid measurement and statistical analysis based on fossil images. Routine steps of image processing technologies and algorithms designed for three types of organic-walled microfossils (i.e., spheroidal type, filamentous type, and broken type) have been introduced in order to illuminate the rationale of FossilMorph. Two case studies on the form genera Leiosphaeridiaand Siphonophycusare used to test the utility of FossilMorph on the study of micropalaeontology, especially the Proterozoic spheroidal acritarchs. Future development of FossilMorph may be extended to deal with complex morphology and community-type preservation for wider applications.