Meeting Abstract
Fractal analysis is a mathematical principle used to measure the complexity of a system or phenomenon. Generally speaking, it tells us how a system takes up space from a macro to a micro level. For example, imaging a coastline from space vs from an airplane vs from standing on the beach. To quantify complexity, we calculate the fractal dimension of the system. The fractal dimension has been used extensively for image and signal processing, and in some fields of biology such as neuroscience. More recently, the use of fractal analysis has been adopted by the morphology community to measure complexity in physical systems such as the lateral line in fishes and the ossicles in sea stars. In this study, we show the results of our modification the fractal dimension framework from 2D to 3D to be used with CT scans. With the recent surge in open access, high resolution, CT scans there is a need for new methods of comparison. In this work, we compare the fractal dimension measured in 2D and 3D of four biological systems: fish lateral lines, seastar ossicles, mollusc shells, and vertebrae. We also discuss best practices for using this method in 2D vs 3D depending on the system.
