An Examination of the Accuracy of Using Plastral Scute Rings to Age Spotted Turtles (Clemmys guttata)

Autor:	Hunter J. Howell, Richard A. Seigel
Rok vydání:	2018
Předmět:	0106 biological sciences animal structures Clemmys guttata 010607 zoology Animal Science and Zoology Anatomy Scute Biology Body size biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics
Zdroj:	Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 17:104-108
ISSN:	1943-3956 1071-8443
DOI:	10.2744/ccb-1282.1
Popis:	The use of plastral scute rings to age turtles is a widely practiced technique, but a lack of rigorous field testing of this method has led to critiques of its usefulness and accuracy. We tested the method's effectiveness for aging spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata) by calculating an Age-Increase Ratio and by recording changes in the number of scutes within a year. We found no correlation between the change in the number of scute rings and the number of years between captures, which likely stems from the observer error associated with the difficulty of accurately counting scutes on older turtles; however, we did record a significant correlation between the number of scute rings and body size.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::0a1db8179bc81a63487015348567147a https://doi.org/10.2744/ccb-1282.1 Zobrazit plný text záznamu Plný text ve formátu PDF