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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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2076-2615/13/1/79/ 2023-08-20T04:09:17+02:00 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 agris 2022-12-25 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Aquatic Animals https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Animals; Volume 13; Issue 1; Pages: 79 cetacea odontocetes Italian sea geographic origin age estimation age at sexual maturity Text 2022 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 2023-08-01T07:58:00Z 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. Text Physeter macrocephalus MDPI Open Access Publishing Animals 13 1 79 |
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MDPI Open Access Publishing |
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English |
topic |
cetacea odontocetes Italian sea geographic origin age estimation age at sexual maturity |
spellingShingle |
cetacea odontocetes Italian sea geographic origin age estimation age at sexual maturity 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 |
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 |
Text |
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 |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 |
op_coverage |
agris |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus |
op_source |
Animals; Volume 13; Issue 1; Pages: 79 |
op_relation |
Aquatic Animals https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010079 |
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Animals |
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13 |
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1 |
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79 |
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1774722123154063360 |