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Calcium Concentration in the Shell of the Bivalve Chione undatella Sowerby

Nature volume 244, pages 155–156 (1973)Cite this article

Abstract

GROWTH ring patterns in bivalves are associated with ontogenetic and environmental changes; as growth rate declines with age, growth increments narrow, and as the seasons shift, growth rings vary in width1. Although for some purposes calcium concentration has been assumed to be uniform throughout the shell2, the concentration is known to vary3; it seems that examination of increases and decreases in calcium concentration would yield information about metabolic fluctuations similar to the ontogenetic and environmental information revealed by growth ring patterns. Such information obtained from fossils could then enable investigation of fossil metabolism, or description of changes in calcium distribution with diagenesis of fossils. Cycles of calcium concentration in fossil shells may, like growth ring patterns4,5 at the structural level, provide chemical data pertaining to variation in the rate of the Earth's rotation through time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geology Department, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 90024

    GARY D. ROSENBERG

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  1. GARY D. ROSENBERG
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ROSENBERG, G. Calcium Concentration in the Shell of the Bivalve Chione undatella Sowerby. Nature 244, 155–156 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/244155a0

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