Developmental changes of facial shape are commonly investigated through geometric morphometrics. A limitation with this approach is the inability to investigate patterns of morphological changes at local scale. This could be addressed through quantifying the deformation required to deform one shape to another. This study aimed to investigate changes in mean, rate, and variance of facial shape at local scale using geometric morphometrics through deformation perspective. 2112 Europeans 3 to 40 years-old from the 3D Facial Norms project were included. Shape and rate trajectories from partial least-squares regressions revealed that the developmentally protrusive nasal bridge was due to local expansion in surrounding tissues as opposed to shape changes in nasal bridge per-ser. Local expansion of the supraorbital region, in particular the medial part in males, resulted in the sloping forehead and deep-situated eyes with development. Facial shape variation increased non-linearly with age (p < 0.05), with features having larger rate of change becoming more developmentally diversified. In summary, our deformation perspective facilitates unravelling morphogenetic processes underlying shape changes. Our extended analytical scope inspires novel measures worthy of consideration while establishing facial growth charts. The analytical framework in this study is broadly applicable for analysis of shape changes in general.

Custom script to calculate Procrustes variance for non-linearly modelled shape data.