The shortfin squid, Illex argentinus, is a neritic-oceanic species distributed along the continental shelf and slope waters of Uruguay, Argentina and the Falkland Islands in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean between latitudes 20° S and 55°S. They occur more abundantly in the area of 35°-52°S,which supports an important jigging fishery on the Patagonian shelf and plays a significant role in the regional ecosystem. I. argentinus is an opportunistic species having rapid growth, a short life cycle, opportunistic feeding, and a high degree of intrapopulation differentiation. Statoliths of cephalopods are small calcareous structures with high resistance to erosion and recording important information all through its life. It is usually used for estimating ages and growth, identifying population structures by analyzing their microstructure, deducing possible migratory routes and reconstructing habitat environment of cephalopods by the analysis of trace elements and isotopes in statolith. Illex argentinus supports an important commercial fishery in the southwest Atlantic. Understanding of population structure, migration and early life history are essential in sustainable exploitation and management of this squid. Elements of 33 statoliths of I. argentines collected in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean during 2007, 2008 and 2010 by Chinese squid jig fishing fleets were analyzed with Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) for different hatching groups, sexes and life history stages. The results indicated that the statolith of I. argentinus contained 56 elements, and calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), sodium (Na), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), barium (Ba), boron (B), gallium (Ga) were the ten most abundant elements. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was no significant difference in all element distributions between sexes (P > 0.05); however, significant difference existed in the Sr, Na, Mg, Ba, B (P < 0.05) and no significant difference was found in the Ca, P, K, Fe and Ga between different hatching groups (P > 0.05). Significant difference existed in all of the ten most abundant elements except for Na, Ba and Ga among different growth zones including nuclear part, postnuclear part, dark zone and peripheral zone in statolith (P < 0.05). This study suggested that Sr and Mg were the best two trace elements to be used in the study of the population structure and life history of I. argentines.