ShellAxis is a specialized image analysis software to calculate the position of the coiling axis of a gastropod shell.

(ShellAxis in action - click on the picture to enlarge)

Molluscs morphometry

ShellAxis allows calculating the position of the coiling axis of a gastropod shell in lateral and apical views, using information provided by the position of some suture points of the shell [see Van Osselaer & Grosjean, 2000. Suture and location of the coiling axis in gastropod shells. Paleobiology, 26(2):238-257].

ShellAxis is also useful for any morphometric measurement made on digital images. The dynamic zoom feature allows to click on various landmarks with the highest precision (when you hit the SHIFT key, you obtain a zoom on the portion of the picture where your mouse pointer is, and therefore, you can click very precisely on the pixel corresponding to this landmark).

Note that this program is not maintained any more!

Download and install ShellAxis

This is the installation files of ShellAxis (.exe, 7.9 Mb), including a tutorial. Please, read first the associated Readme.txt file to determine if your computer configuration meets the required specifications before installing this package. Look also at a presentation (AVI video, 5.9 Mb), or the tutorial (.zip, 1.1 Mb) alone if you want to learn more about ShellAxis without installing it in your computer. Additional samples are available here (.exe 5.2 Mb).