Dear Colleagues,
my co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of our work in
Mammalian Biology:
Autenrieth, M., Ernst, A., Deaville, R., Demaret, F., IJsseldijk, L.L.,
Siebert, U. and Tiedemann, R. (2018) Putative origin and maternal
relatedness of male sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) recently stranded
in the North Sea. Mammalian Biology 88 (156–160); doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2017.09.003
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2017.09.003>
The paper is available online here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1616504717301337
It can be access for free (for the next 50 days) here:
https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1WN795lZFLSzPP
Abstract:
The globally distributed sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) has a partly
matrilineal social structure with predominant male dispersal. At the
beginning of 2016, a total of 30 male sperm whales stranded in five
different countries bordering the southern North Sea. It has been postulated
that these individuals were on a migration route from the north to warmer
temperate and tropical waters where females live in social groups. By
including samples from four countries (n = 27), this event provided a unique
chance to genetically investigate the maternal relatedness and the putative
origin of these temporally and spatially co-occuring male sperm whales. To
utilize existing genetic resources, we sequenced 422 bp of the mitochondrial
control region, a molecular marker for which sperm whale data are readily
available from the entire distribution range. Based on four single
nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the mitochondrial control region,
five matrilines could be distinguished within the stranded specimens, four
of which matched published haplotypes previously described in the Atlantic.
Among these male sperm whales, multiple matrilineal lineages co-occur. We
analyzed the population differentiation and could show that the genetic
diversity of these male sperm whales is comparable to the genetic diversity
in sperm whales from the entire Atlantic Ocean. We confirm that within this
stranding event, males do not comprise maternally related individuals and
apparently include assemblages of individuals from different geographic
regions.
Kind regards,
Marijke Autenrieth
--
Marijke Autenrieth, M.Sc.
PhD student
phone: 0049-(0)-331-977-5586
email: [email protected]
web: https://mammalsevolve.wordpress.com/
Universität Potsdam
Evolutionsbiologie
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25
14476 Golm
_______________________________________________
MARMAM mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
