Shells have been among one of the most revered of natural objects by human cultures through the ages. Our new project, "DIABOLO" aims to dissect how we analyse the growth and form of shells using new 3D models we are developing in collaboration with mathematicians.

We will use the Great Scallop, Pecten maximus, as a model organism to explore both the analysis of the morphodynamics of shell growth using mathematical models, and compare reference forms to actual variability of the three dimensional form from a unique collection of individuals spanning 3 decades in the Bay of Brest.

The mathematical modelling is being developed with through discussions we had with Dr. Derek Moulton when we visited his laboratory at the Mathematical Institute of Oxford during July 2016.

Since early 2017, we now have regular exchanges with the mathematical community thanks to Dr. Brice Franke and other members of the Laboratoire de Mathématiques de Bretagne Atlantique on the UBO campus.

DIABOLO (3-DImensional Analysis of Bivalve hOLOtypes) is a one year project (2017-2018) of UMR6539-LEMAR and the LIA BeBEST funded through the "Laboratoire d'Excellence" LabexMER (ANR-10-LABX-19) and co-funded by a grant from the French government under the program "Investissements d'Avenir". The project is led by J. Coston-Guarini.

IMAGE: Fountain near the entrance to the Department of Mathematics at Oxford University. (c) J. Coston-Guarini. 2016.

To learn more about our progress on DIABOLO, see: