• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.28-37
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• 1997

Two marine bivalve shells were collected from the eastern and western coastal regions of Korea, respectively. Stable oxygen and carbon isotope profiles are constructed using the incremental sampling along the axis of maximum growth to provide the continuous ${\delta}^{18}$O and ${\delta}^{13}$C records, which register the physical, biological and chemical properties of seawater where the organisms live. Cycles in the ${\delta}^{18}$O profiles are interpreted as annual along with the identification of annual growth bands; the maximum ${\delta}^{18}$O values correspond with the coldest temperature of seawater whereas the minimum ${\delta}^{18}$O values with the warmest temperature. The primary control on the amplitude of the ${\delta}^{18}$O profiles is seasonal variation of seawater temperature. The offset of the baseline between ${\delta}^{18}$O values of the two specimens is attributed to differences in both temperature and seawater ${\delta}^{18}$O values between two localities. The ${\delta}^{13}$C profiles show the similar seasonality of carbon cycling associated with phytoplankton productivity. The offset in the ${\delta}^{13}$C profiles between two specimens may be, as in the case of oxygen isotope profile, attributed to the different ${\delta}^{13}$C value of the seawater DIC (dissolved inorganic carbon) between the western coast and the eastern coast. Relationships between the shell isotopic composition and the coastal water properties of shell growth are readily interpreted from the ${\delta}^{18}$O-${\delta}^{13}$C pair diagram of the shell isotope data, similar to the use of salinity-${\delta}^{18}$O diagram for identifying water masses. The preliminary stable isotope results of this study suggest that mollusk shell isotope geochemistry may be useful to monitor the properties of water masses in the coastal and inner shelf setting around Korea and improve the interpretation of paleoceanography, provided the fossil mollusks are well preserved.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.22
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• pp.1-14
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• 2019

The excavation of the south mound of Hwangnamdaechong Tomb in Gyeongju has yielded diverse types of shell artifacts. Among the them, this paper investigated fragments of shell ornaments with gilt-bronze frames, the use of which has not been identified. It was revealed that the artifacts are in fact nautilus cups, which had never been found previously in excavations in Korea. A nautilus is a species marine mollusk known to be the closest to prehistoric ammonites. It has brown stripes on the surface of the shell and septa inside, and a siphuncle penetrating to the center of the septa. It is known that nautilus cups were made and used in China, but only three examples have thus far been identified. These surviving cups have metal ornaments and are dated to the Western and Eastern Jin periods of China. No nautilus cups have been found in Japan, and the shell ornaments investigated in this study were determined to be the first nautilus cups ever found in Korea. Nautilus cups are mentioned in ancient documents and literature, including in poems by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai and in Joseon-period documents. This paper presents the biological characteristics of nautili, cases of excavation of nautilus cups outside Korea, and findings from the basic research of the nautilus cup from Hwangnamdaechong Tomb.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1003-1008
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• 2009

Abalone (genus Haliotis) is a woody species with a long life span that is primarily distributed throughout the world, including Asia. This species is regarded as a very important marine gastropod mollusk in Korea and China, and also in food industries around the world. We evaluated a representative sample of the five species with nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer sequences (ITS) to estimate genetic relationships within the genus. Aligned nucleotide sequences of the length of the 5.8S subunit of all taxa of Haliotis were found to constant of 160 bp nucleotides. However, aligned nucleotide sequences of the length of ITS1 were varied within genus Haliotis, varying from 272 in H. diversicolor aquatilis to 292 in H. discus hannai. Aligned nucleotide sequences of the length of ITS2, especially, vary from 722 in H. diversicolor aquatilis to 752 in H. sieboldii. Total alignment length is 763 positions, of which 78 are parsimony-informative, 57 variable but parsimony-uninformative, and 459 constant characters. H. discus hannai was similar to H. discus, while H. diversicolor aquatilis was more distinct. ITS analysis may be useful in germ-plasm classification several taxa of genus Haliotis.