Dear Tino,

One dating method that has worked well with large gastropods is aspartic acid racemization. The late Glenn Goodfriend did a study of the Caribbean slit shell Entemnotrochus adansoniana using this method, and got very good results. See for example:

http://www.psjournals.org/paleoonline/?request=get-abstract&issn=0094-8373&volume=29&issue=3&page=381

or

http://ieg.or.kr:8080/abstractII/H0105906009.html

Regards,

PC.

Paul Callomon
Collections Manager
Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
Department of Malacology
Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
Tel 215-405-5096
Fax 215-299-1170
Secretary, American Malacological Society
On the web at www.malacological.org

>>> [log in to unmask] 03/24/06 11:28PM >>>
Hi Everybody

  I would like to get recommendations concerning an analyisis that I would like to do for my project.
This involves dating of conch shells (Stronbus gigas). Conchs that have been harvested.
I was thinking if there was a method of carbon dating or any other method that anybody might know I could use to age these shells and to determine the time when they were harvested.

  Tino Chi


******************************
  PhD Student
  Department of Forest Sciences
  University of British Columbia
  3041-2424 Main Mall
  Vancouver, B.C. Canada
  V6T 1Z4

  Ph. 604 220 3322


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