Turtles as climate archives?

A TV documentary about turtles sparked Katharina Streit’s curiosity: Could it be that the lines on the horny scales of a turtle's shell indicate the age of the cold-blooded animal, like a tree’s rings? The young archaeologist wanted to know for sure and began measuring the ring patterns on turtle shells from the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna. She found that while the growth rings only give a rough indication of the animal's age, they do reveal a great deal about the animals' living conditions. Each ring documents one year’s worth of climate conditions.

The archeologist now wants to be the first to study this climate archive, in the hope of finding out more about the climate of the past and its regional differences. Ultimately, not only humans could benefit from this new knowledge, but also the turtles themselves, which are severely threatened by global warming.