Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae)
We investigated the relationship between age and body length, and age at sexual maturity of Physeter macrocephalus individuals stranded along the Italian coast. Our molecular analysis shows that all our samples belong to the C.001.002 haplotype, shared between Atlantic and Mediterranean populations....
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2022
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:39738c1fa4f646fe994b6a79055f62ec 2023-12-31T10:22:02+01:00 Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae) Nicola Maio Tatiana Fioravanti Lucrezia Latini Agnese Petraccioli Marcello Mezzasalma Bruno Cozzi Sandro Mazzariol Michela Podestà Gianni Insacco Francesco Pollaro Giuseppe Lucifora Ida Ferrandino Nicola Zizzo Filippo Spadola Fulvio Garibaldi Fabio Maria Guarino Andrea Splendiani Vincenzo Caputo Barucchi 2022-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 https://doaj.org/article/39738c1fa4f646fe994b6a79055f62ec EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/1/79 https://doaj.org/toc/2076-2615 doi:10.3390/ani13010079 2076-2615 https://doaj.org/article/39738c1fa4f646fe994b6a79055f62ec Animals, Vol 13, Iss 1, p 79 (2022) cetacea odontocetes Italian sea geographic origin age estimation age at sexual maturity Veterinary medicine SF600-1100 Zoology QL1-991 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 2023-12-03T01:36:44Z We investigated the relationship between age and body length, and age at sexual maturity of Physeter macrocephalus individuals stranded along the Italian coast. Our molecular analysis shows that all our samples belong to the C.001.002 haplotype, shared between Atlantic and Mediterranean populations. We show that males attain sexual maturity at 10 years, similar to those from other marine areas. However, considering the same body length class, Mediterranean males are older than Atlantic ones. Our finding of a Mediterranean pregnant female of only 6.5 m in length and an assessed age of 24–26 years is particularly noteworthy, considering that females reach sexual maturity at about 9 years and 9 m of total length in other regions. Comparing our results with the literature data, we highlight the positive correlation between lifespan, adult body length and weight of males from the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. Regardless of whether the relatively small size of Mediterranean specimens is a consequence of an inbreeding depression or an adaptation to less favorable trophic conditions, we recommend to closely monitor this population from a conservation perspective. In fact, its low genetic diversity likely corresponds to a relatively limited ability to respond to environmental changes compared with other populations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Physeter macrocephalus Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Animals 13 1 79 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
cetacea odontocetes Italian sea geographic origin age estimation age at sexual maturity Veterinary medicine SF600-1100 Zoology QL1-991 |
spellingShingle |
cetacea odontocetes Italian sea geographic origin age estimation age at sexual maturity Veterinary medicine SF600-1100 Zoology QL1-991 Nicola Maio Tatiana Fioravanti Lucrezia Latini Agnese Petraccioli Marcello Mezzasalma Bruno Cozzi Sandro Mazzariol Michela Podestà Gianni Insacco Francesco Pollaro Giuseppe Lucifora Ida Ferrandino Nicola Zizzo Filippo Spadola Fulvio Garibaldi Fabio Maria Guarino Andrea Splendiani Vincenzo Caputo Barucchi Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae) |
topic_facet |
cetacea odontocetes Italian sea geographic origin age estimation age at sexual maturity Veterinary medicine SF600-1100 Zoology QL1-991 |
description |
We investigated the relationship between age and body length, and age at sexual maturity of Physeter macrocephalus individuals stranded along the Italian coast. Our molecular analysis shows that all our samples belong to the C.001.002 haplotype, shared between Atlantic and Mediterranean populations. We show that males attain sexual maturity at 10 years, similar to those from other marine areas. However, considering the same body length class, Mediterranean males are older than Atlantic ones. Our finding of a Mediterranean pregnant female of only 6.5 m in length and an assessed age of 24–26 years is particularly noteworthy, considering that females reach sexual maturity at about 9 years and 9 m of total length in other regions. Comparing our results with the literature data, we highlight the positive correlation between lifespan, adult body length and weight of males from the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. Regardless of whether the relatively small size of Mediterranean specimens is a consequence of an inbreeding depression or an adaptation to less favorable trophic conditions, we recommend to closely monitor this population from a conservation perspective. In fact, its low genetic diversity likely corresponds to a relatively limited ability to respond to environmental changes compared with other populations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nicola Maio Tatiana Fioravanti Lucrezia Latini Agnese Petraccioli Marcello Mezzasalma Bruno Cozzi Sandro Mazzariol Michela Podestà Gianni Insacco Francesco Pollaro Giuseppe Lucifora Ida Ferrandino Nicola Zizzo Filippo Spadola Fulvio Garibaldi Fabio Maria Guarino Andrea Splendiani Vincenzo Caputo Barucchi |
author_facet |
Nicola Maio Tatiana Fioravanti Lucrezia Latini Agnese Petraccioli Marcello Mezzasalma Bruno Cozzi Sandro Mazzariol Michela Podestà Gianni Insacco Francesco Pollaro Giuseppe Lucifora Ida Ferrandino Nicola Zizzo Filippo Spadola Fulvio Garibaldi Fabio Maria Guarino Andrea Splendiani Vincenzo Caputo Barucchi |
author_sort |
Nicola Maio |
title |
Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae) |
title_short |
Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae) |
title_full |
Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae) |
title_fullStr |
Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Life History Traits of Sperm Whales Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Stranded along Italian Coasts (Cetartiodactyla: Physeteridae) |
title_sort |
life history traits of sperm whales physeter macrocephalus linnaeus, 1758 stranded along italian coasts (cetartiodactyla: physeteridae) |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 https://doaj.org/article/39738c1fa4f646fe994b6a79055f62ec |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus |
op_source |
Animals, Vol 13, Iss 1, p 79 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/1/79 https://doaj.org/toc/2076-2615 doi:10.3390/ani13010079 2076-2615 https://doaj.org/article/39738c1fa4f646fe994b6a79055f62ec |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 |
container_title |
Animals |
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13 |
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1 |
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79 |
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1786833015730601984 |