Inappropriate application of logarithmic transformations for allometric power functions of morphometric data on acanthocephalan worms

摘要

Logarithmic transformation is used to transform multiplicative phenomena to a linear, additive scale. Some workers recommend the transformation x' = log x + 1 when observed values are equal to zero. However, when working with morphometric data, this transformation is inappropriate because it arbitrarily changes the nature of the relationship between body parts. To illustrate this point, this contribution re-analyses a data set from the recent literature.