Elemental signatures in the vertebral cartilage of the round stingray, Urobatis halleri, from Seal Beach, California

Although numerous studies have utilized elemental analysis techniques for age determination in bony fishes, little work has been conducted utilizing these procedures to verify age assessments or temporal periodicity of growth band formation in elasmobranchs. The goal of this study was to determine the potential of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to provide information on the seasonal deposition of elements in the vertebrae of the round stingray collected from Seal Beach, California. Spatially resolved time scans for elements across the round stingray vertebrae showed peaks in calcium intensity that aligned with and corresponded to the number of seasonal growth bands identified using standard light microscopy. Higher signals of calcium were associated with the wide opaque bands while lower signals of calcium corresponded to the narrow translucent bands. While a close alignment between the numbers of calcium peaks and annual growth bands was observed in round stingray samples aged 5 years or younger, this relationship was less well defined in vertebral samples from round stingrays over 11 years old. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to utilize ICP-MS to verify age assessments and seasonal band formation in an elasmobranch. The results from this preliminary study indicate that LA-ICP-MS elemental analysis of the vertebral cartilage of the round stingray may have potential to independently verify optically derived age assessments and seasonal banding patterns in elasmobranch vertebrae.