内部切片法测定淡水贝类的年龄

Age determination of freshwater mussels using the method of thin section

采用外部生长线估算法测定淡水贝类年龄具有局限性，对年龄偏大或生长较慢的品种不适用。本文介绍一种新的方法──内部切片法，是精确和准确测定贝类年龄的有效方法。通过对美国的两种淡水贝类扇贝和厚实珍珠贝进行内部切片法和外部生长线估算法的研究和实验数据的统计分析，证明内部切片法的结果更代表贝类的实际年龄。同时，还分析了淡水贝壳类年龄、长度、高度之间的相互关系。

The method of enumerating growth lines to determine the age of freshwater mussles has its limitation and not applicable to the older specimens and those species with slow growth. The new method of thin section introduced in this report is the accurate and precise way to determine the ages of bivalves. It is demonstrated that results from thin section represent the real ages of bivalves based on statistical analysis of the experimental data and comparison of age estimates for two species Fanshell (Cyprogenia stegaria) and Slabside pearlymussel (Lexingtonia dolabelloides) in U.S.A. determined by the thin section and external growth ring method. The relationship among age, length and height of freshwater mussels has also been discussed in this report.