<b>Estimating Age and Comparing Techniques for Estimating Surface Area of Freshwater Mussel (Unionidae) Shells"</b> publicly available dataset

Our study considers regressions of age and surface area from shell length measurements and compares different measurement methods of unionid surface area. Using shells (<i>n </i>= 62) of five different species from the Great Lakes region, regression equations for 5 unionid species were created between length and age as well as length and surface area calculated using four different methods. Shells had their length, height, and width measured via calipers. Shells additionally had their average, maximum, and minimum age estimated from external annuli as well as surface area measured using the ellipsoid surface area calculation, foil wrapping, and photogrammetry methods.