1. Omura's whale off West Africa: autochthonous population or inter-oceanic vagrant in the Atlantic Ocean?
- Author
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Zein El Abidine Ould Sidaty, Abdellahi Samba Ould Bilal, Frédéric Marret, Jean-Luc Jung, Koen Van Waerebeek, Eléonore Méheust, Lola Toomey, Moulaye Mohamed Wagne, Wim C. Mullié, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB ), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA), Laboratoire de Biologie et génétique des mammifères marins dans leur environnement (BioGEMME), Université de Brest (UBO), Cetean Conservation Medicine Group (CMED), and Cetacean Conservation Medicine Group-CEPEC/Museo de Delfines
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,0301 basic medicine ,Range (biology) ,Population ,Aquatic Science ,[SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy ,Oceanography ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,DNA barcoding ,West africa ,03 medical and health sciences ,Marine mammal ,biology.animal ,14. Life underwater ,education ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,education.field_of_study ,biology ,Whale ,biology.organism_classification ,Omura's whale ,Fishery ,[SDV.GEN.GA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics/Animal genetics ,030104 developmental biology ,Rorqual - Abstract
The surveillance of marine mammal strandings within the framework of a biomonitoring scheme for the Mauritanian coast led to the discovery in 2013 of a 3.98 m long, juvenile rorqual Balaenoptera sp. in an advanced state of decomposition near Chott Boul (16°32.488′N, 016°27.0317′W). Photographs and skin samples were taken, but the specimen could not be collected. Based on limited morphological evidence, only Balaenoptera edeni and B. omurai were plausible. Sequences of three mtDNA regions, i.e. parts of the cox1 and the cytb genes as well as the D-loop, for a total of 2636 bp (> 16% of the mitogenome) identified the specimen as an Omura's whale, B. omurai, the first record in the Atlantic Ocean and at least 11,400 km away from its closest known range in the SW Indian Ocean (Madagascar). The question of whether the specimen is a vagrant or belongs to an unrecognized Atlantic population is discussed. Advection by currents or transport on a ship's bow bulb following collision are discarded. Circumstan...
- Published
- 2015