Somatic growth rate data for wild sea turtles can provide insight into life-stage durations, time to maturation, and total lifespan. When appropriately validated, the technique of skeletochronology allows prior growth rates of sea turtles to be calculated with considerably less time and labor than required by mark--recapture studies. We applied skeletochronology to 10 dead, stranded green turtl...

In December 1991, we initiated a long-term study of the California Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma californiense) at a breeding pond in Monterey County, California. Because of habitat loss, this species is a candidate for federal endangered species status, but many basic features of its life history and demography have not been studied in detail. During the first seven years of this study, we captu...

Growth rates within and among sea turtles are highly variable, and gaining an understanding of this variability is difficult using traditional means, such as mark–recapture. Skeletochronology is becoming a standard technique for the assessment of individual growth rates in sea turtles. Here we present an analysis of the relationship between humerus diameter and somatic growth in loggerhead sea ...

The time between a seaturtle's entry into the sea and its return to a nesting beach as an adult, the « Lost Year », has been variously estimated, often speculatively so, with very little data. Age estimates have been based frequently on the rapid growth rate of hatcUing turtles raised in captivity, commonly yielding time estimates from hatching to sexual maturity of less than ten years (e.g.. M...

Introduction Management of endangered species requires knowledge of the age structure of populations. Often this is ascertained by mark–recapture studies. However, such studies usually require an extensive time span for long-lived organisms, whereas the endangered status of many species calls for faster data collection that can be used in risk assessment and, ultimately, decision making. The st...

In this study, a total of 16 Agile frog, Rana dalmatina species preserved in the ZDEU-COMU collection and collected from Çanakkale (4 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀) Kırklareli (7♂♂, 1♀) were examined to estimate their age relationship between body size using skeletochronology method. addition, both femora phalanx samples evaluated together. Sexual maturity ages found be 2-3 male female individuals populations. The ...

Average age and maximum life span of breeding adult three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) were determined in eight Fennoscandian localities with the aid of skeletochronology. The average age varied from 1.8 to 3.6 years, and maximum life span from three to six years depending on the locality. On average, fish from marine populations were significantly older than those from freshwat...