New project has been started about the age-body morphology relationship.

Determination of age with skeletal chronology and investigation of age-body morphology relationships in sea turtles

Project coordinator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bektaş SÖNMEZ

Researcher: Prof. Dr. Şükran YALÇIN ÖZDİLEK

Scholarship: Emre SANDIK

Methods that are used in age determination studies to create growth models on sea turtles and to determine the demographic structure of the population include radiocarbon dating, telomere shortening, amino acid resamination, capture–mark–recapture (CMR), and the skeletal chronology method. Among these methods, skeletal chronology is the most widely used. The skeletal chronology method also allows us to obtain information about the life history of the individual in relation to time by analyzing the change in bone tissue. The project's research question is: what kind of relationship exists between the age distribution of sea turtles (Caretta caretta and Chelonia mydas) that stranded at Samanda Beach, the consistency of age determinations with the bony structures of the phalanx and humerus, the body morphology of these species, and the morphology of their bony structures (phalanx and humerus) in order to understand the change in population demography of sea turtles? For this purpose, humerus and phalanx bones of sea turtle species that were stranded on Samandağ Beach in Hatay Province will be collected, and their ages will be determined by taking histological sections using the skeletal chronology method. Thus, information about the age distribution of stranded sea turtles will be obtained.