Sclerochronology

Sclerochronology is the study of periodic physical and chemical features in the hard tissues of animals that grow by accretion, including invertebrates and coralline red algae, and the temporal context in which they formed.

Sclerochronology focuses primarily upon growth patterns reflecting annual, monthly, fortnightly, tidal, daily, and sub-daily (ultradian) increments of time.

The regular time increments are controlled by biological clocks, which, in turn, are caused by environmental and astronomical pacemakers.

Familiar examples include: Sclerochronology is analogous to dendrochronology, the study of annual rings in trees, and equally seeks to deduce organismal life history traits as well as to reconstruct records of environmental and climatic change through space and time.

The science of sclerochronology as applied to hard parts of various organism groups is now routinely used for paleoceanographic and paleoclimate reconstructions.

Arctica islandica from the North Sea, prepared for investigation of growth bands for palaeoclimate reconstructions (2009)