The higher estimate was based on growth curves from scute rings, which may have underestimated carapace growth, and a minimum size of females with eggs of 155 mm. |
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This spear, called the gular scute, had once put someone in mind of a plow. |
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Their shells seemed to glow, each scute deep gold, hexagonal, in a dark-brown frame. |
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They found that the isotopic composition was similar to that of loggerhead scute. |
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As they describe in Biology Letters, they analyzed samples of scute — the hard substance that protects the turtles' bony shells. |
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The plastron is full coverage, has a lateral hinge just ahead of the bridge and is usually yellow with a black blotch in the outer posterior corner of each scute. |
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A secondary goal was to determine whether bacterial abundance differed between scute centers and sulci. |
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One was lacking a gular scute — it had been sawed off. |
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Like a person's fingernails, a turtle's scute is made of keratin. |
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In addition, we engraved a number into the first vertebral scute. |
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Scute counts also decline significantly from proximal to distal, with minimal overlap. |
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