Age and growth of Hawaiian seaturtles (Chelonia mydas): an analysis based on skeletochronology

Skeletochronological data on growth changes in humerus diameter were used to estimate the age of Hawaiian green seaturtles ranging from 28.7 to 96.0 cm straight carapace length. Two age estimation methods, correction factor and spline integration, were compared, giving age estimates ranging from 4.1 to 34.6 and from 3.3 to 49.4 yr, respectively, for the sample data. Mean growth rates of Hawaiian green seaturtles are 4–5 cm/yr in early juveniles, decline to a relatively constant rate of about 2 cm/yr by age 10 yr, then decline again to less than 1 cm/yr as turtles near age 30 yr. On average, age estimates from the two techniques differed by just a few years for juvenile turtles, but by wider margins for mature turtles. The spline-integration method models the curvilinear relationship between humerus diameter and the width of periosteal growth increments within the humerus, and offers several advantages over the correction-factor approach.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Zug, George R., Balazs, George H., Wetherall, Jerry A., Parker, Denise M., Murakawa, Shawn K. K.
Format:	article biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	2002
Subjects:	Biology, Chemistry, Fisheries,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/1834/31048
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!