Hostname: page-component-66644f4456-vbzrr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T07:52:08.967Z Has data issue: true hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Notes on Shell-Depositions in Oysters: Note on the Chemical Composition of “Chalky” Deposits in Shells of O. edulis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

J. H. Orton ,
C. Amirthalingam  and
H. O. Bull
J. H. Orton
Affiliation:
Chief Naturalist at the Plymouth Laboratory
H. O. Bull
Affiliation:
Student Probationer at the Plymouth Laboratory
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The observations recorded form preliminary studies which it is hoped will be useful in special investigations on the physiology of shell-depositions in oysters. The distribution of chalky shell-deposits on the internal faces of the valves in young and old O. edulis and O. angulata has been studied, and its average distribution determined in shells of O. edulis of jnedium age from West Mersea and the Fal Estuary.

The distribution of this material in the shells of young O. edulis and in O. angulata is such that there can be little doubt that the function of the chalky deposit is to fill in rapidly grooves, hollows, and other spaces, which are inimical to efficient functioning in the changing needs of the individual.

In O. edulis of medium age large deposits occur regularly in the shell adjacent to the exhalent chamber and smaller ones on the border of the shell in the region of the inhalent chamber. The hypothesis is advanced that these regular deposits can be explained in the same way as those more easily understood by assuming that in a high percentage of shells of medium age, the contour of the shell in the region of the exhalent chamber and other parts is such that rapid extension and contraction of the mantle cannot be effected; deposition of chalky shell-material modifies this contour of the shell with certainty in some cases, but hypothetically in others, so that the mantle can be extended and retracted with a maximum of efficiency.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , May 1927 , pp. 935 - 954
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1927

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1844. Carpenter, W. B. On the Microscopical Structure of Shells. Rep. British Assoc., pp. 3 and 14.Google Scholar
1923. Orton, J. H.Min. Agric. and Fish. Fisheries Investigations, Series II, Vol. 6, Pt. I, p. 61, and Pt. II, p. 65. London.Google Scholar
1916. Southern, R.Chambrage in Oysters. Dept. Agric. Techn. Instruct., Ireland. Journ., Vol. XVI, No. 4.Google Scholar
1923. Worsnop, E., and Orton, J. H.The Cause of Chambering in Oysters and other Lamellibranchs. Nature, Vol. CXI.Google Scholar
1926. Yonge, C. M.Structure and Physiology of the Organs of Feeding and Digestion in Ostrea edulis. Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc., N.S., Vol. XIV, No. 2, p. 370.Google Scholar
1925. Orton, J. H.The Conditions for Calcareous Metabolism in Oysters and other Marine Animals. Nature, Vol. 116, p. 13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1912. Jameson, H. L. Studies on Pearl-Oysters and Pearls. Proc. Zoo. Soc., London, p. 260.Google Scholar