The dynamic reshaping of tissues during morphogenesis results
from a combination of individual cell behaviors and collective
cell rearrangements. However, a comprehensive framework to
unambiguously measure and link cell behavior to tissue
morphogenesis is lacking. Here we introduce such a kinematic
framework, bridging cell and tissue behaviors at an intermediate,
mesoscopic, level of cell clusters or domains. By measuring
domain deformation in terms of the relative motion of cell
positions and the evolution of their shapes, we characterized the
basic invariant quantities that measure fundamental classes of
cell behavior, namely tensorial rates of cell shape change and
cell intercalation. In doing so we introduce an explicit definition
of cell intercalation as a continuous process. We mapped strain
rates spatiotemporally in three models of tissue morphogenesis,
gaining insight into morphogenetic mechanisms. Our
quantitative approach has broad relevance for the precise
characterization and comparison of morphogenetic phenotypes.