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Science 3 January 1986:
Vol. 231. no. 4733, pp. 46 - 48
DOI: 10.1126/science.231.4733.46
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Articles

Life History of Symbiont-Bearing Giant Clams from Stable Isotope Profiles

DOUGLAS S. JONES 1, DOUGLAS F. WILLIAMS 2, and CHRISTOPHER S. ROMANEK 3

1 Florida State Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611.
2 Department of Geology, University of South Carolina, Columbia 29208.
3 Department of Geology, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611.

Stable isotopic and shell-growth banding studies of the symbiont-bearing giant clam Tridacna maxima reveal the existence of two growth phases related to sexual maturity that can be discerned in the shells of extinct and extant mollusks. The changeover from the first to second growth phase at an age of approximately 10 years is accompanied by a decrease in rate of calcification and suggests a reordering of energy priorities between biomineralization and reproduction. The carbon-13 to carbon-12 ratio of Tridacna maxima is systematically depleted relative to symbiont-barren mollusks, making it possible to determine the importance of algal-molluscan symbiosis to the functional morphology and paleoecology of mollusks in the geologic record.

Submitted on June 24, 1985
Accepted on November 4, 1985


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Dating and Characterization of Polymorphic Transformation of Aragonite to Calcite in Pleistocene Bivalves from Rhodes (Greece) by Combined Shell Microstructure, Stable Isotope, and Electron Spin Resonance Study.
J. Titschack, U. Radtke, and A. Freiwald (2009)
Journal of Sedimentary Research 79, 332-346
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Stable Isotope and Sr/Ca Profiles From the Marine Gastropod Conus ermineus: Testing a Multiproxy Approach For Inferring Paleotemperature and Paleosalinity.
D. K. Gentry, S. Sosdian, E. L. Grossman, Y. Rosenthal, D. Hicks, and C. H. Lear (2008)
Palaios 23, 195-209
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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