Exercise 4.2: Hacker stats with Darwin’s finches

Dataset download


You have already performed exploratory data analysis on the length and depth of finch beaks on the island of Daphne Major over time. You should reread that problem to re-familiarize yourself with the data set.

We extend that open-ended problem with another open-ended analysis. Devise a measure for the shape of a beak. That is, invent some scalar measure that combines both the length and depth of the beak and justify your choice. Compare this measure between species and through time. (This is very open-ended. It is up to you to define the measure, make relevant plots, and compute confidence intervals to see how shape changes over time and between the two species.)