Kawaguchi, Yoichiro 1982. A Morphological Study of the Form of Nature. In: SIGGRAPH 1982 Conference Proceedings.. New York, NY (USA):ACM

the abstract:

A process of recreating some forms of nature, including shells, horns, tusks, claws, and spiral plants, is herein described. The forms of nature based on spirals and ramification are generated not through the use of object data calculated by measurement, but through the use of an algorithmic structure based on the laws of nature. Although there are a myriad of forms to the shapes of nature, they are represented on the basis of one common principle, which can be expressed by means of the same mathematical expressions. The graphic software which is called “GROWTH” (Growth Rationale Object Work THeorem) has now been designed to create these forms automatically. GROWTH incorporates the rational, common principle of geometrical series which are found in the structute of biological objects.

The paper appeared in the proceedings of the prestigious annual SIGGRAPH conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.