Nonlinear analysis of the morphology of hemocytes from the sea stars Aphelasterias japonica (Bell, 1881), Patiria pectinifera (Muller et Troschel, 1842), and the bivalve Callista brevisiphonata (Carpenter, 1864)

Abstract

A comparative analysis of the morphology of in vitro flattened coelomocytes of two starfish species, Aphelasterias japonica and Patiria pectinifera (Echinodermata: Asteroidea), and hemocytes of the bivalve Callista brevisiphonata (Mollusca: Bivalvia) was performed using a number of nonlinear parameters including several types of fractal dimensions and lacunarities. The visually “chaotic” shapes of in vitro flattened hemocytes and coelomocytes of the studied marine invertebrate species significantly differ in a number of nonlinear parameters. This fact allows numerical description of the morphology of hemolymph cells of the studied animals and gives grounds to assume a species specificity of the biological differences that influence the morphology of in vitro flattened cells.