Relative cost of producing skeletal organic matrix versus calcification: Evidence from marine gastropods

Abstract

Rates of shell regeneration in 15 species from all three suborders of prosobranch gastropods were related inversely to percent organic matrix of the shell. Since the gastropods in these experiments were not fed and therefore forced to rely upon stored energy reserves while regenerating this inverse relationship suggests that the production of skeletal organic matrix is more demanding metabolically than the crystallization of calcium carbonate. Such a relationship between the organic and inorganic components of carbonate skeletons may help explain the evolutionary loss of skeletal microstructures with a high percent organic matrix in several major invertebrate groups.