Abstract. The methods and agorithms were developed and tested on fish scales, whole and broken and thin-sectioned otoliths, thin-sectioned shells from 15 fish and non-fish species. Image analysis systems and specially developed software packages were applied. The variety and the heterogeneity of growth patterns, the multiple quasi-periodicity of bands, the unstationary nature and the noisiness of brightness profiles were some of the primary problems. A few mathematical approaches, such as spectral power function, and the adaptive joint interpolation of transects have been developed to manage these problems. Some recommendations as to how to overcome these problems are given.

Key words: methods, time series analysis, image processing, biological multilayer structures.