Quantification and geometric analysis of coiling patterns in gastropod shells based on 3D and 2D image data

Area of Science:

• Developmental biology
• Ecology and Evolution
• Computational biology

Background:

• Gastropod shell morphology is crucial in ecology and evolution, now also relevant in developmental biology due to molecular techniques.
• The growing tube model links local tissue growth to global shell coiling patterns but lacks empirical application due to parameter estimation challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate methods for estimating growing tube model parameters from both 3D Computed Tomography (CT) data and 2D image data.
• To enable wider empirical research into gastropod shell morphology and coiling patterns.

Main Methods:

• Developed parameter estimation methods for the growing tube model using 3D CT data by fitting an analytical solution.
• Developed parameter estimation methods for the growing tube model using 2D image data by fitting Raup's model and converting parameters.
• Applied methods to simulated data and actual 3D CT and 2D image data of land snails.

Main Results:

• Both developed methods successfully estimate growing tube model parameters from 3D CT and 2D image data.
• The methods accurately reconstruct gastropod shell coiling patterns, with limitations noted for non-coiling shells.
• Demonstrated effectiveness on both simulated and real-world land snail shell data.

Conclusions:

• The proposed parameter estimation methods overcome previous limitations in applying the growing tube model empirically.
• These methods facilitate the reconstruction and analysis of gastropod shell coiling patterns from available morphological data.
• Advances understanding of shell morphology and provides tools for developmental and evolutionary studies.