[Histonet] skeletochronology question

[Philip Oshel]

Bone acts as a calcium reserve for metabolism, so maybe calcium 
resorption then redeposition, depending on time of year? E.g., times 
of low food, the critters use bone calcium to meet metabolic needs.
Any correlations between sex and "age", distinctness of the bands, or 
width of the bands? Females would have greater need for calcium 
during ovipositing, so should show greater resorption/redeposition 
effects than males.
Do the bands correlate with seasons as opposed to calendar years?

Phil

>hello histoland,
>
>A student and I recently did some skeletochronology on some 
>salamanders.  We found a segment of animals with no growth lines (< 
>1 yr) and then animals up to 11 yrs old.  There was no relationship 
>between age and body size.  Still, the growth rings were present in 
>the bone.  Differences in growth between years was evident, but 
>clearly they were not growing!  This seems to suggest that the 
>growth rings are not useful for modeling growth in this species, or 
>that they reach maximum growth within their first year.
>
>ANy thoughts???
>
>
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Philip Oshel
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