First record of Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens) stranded in Korea.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kim SM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6715915 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The True's beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus, True 1913) is a poorly known member of the Ziphiidae family. Its distribution in the northern hemisphere is thought to be restricted to the temperate or warm temperate waters of the North Atlantic, while a few stranding records from the southern hemisphere suggest a wider and antitropical distribution, extending to waters from the Atlantic coast of Brazil to South Africa, Mozambique, Australia and the Tasman Sea coast of New Zealand. This paper (i) reports the first molecular confirmation of the occurrence of the True's beaked whale at the southern limit of its distribution recorded in the northeast Atlantic: the Azores and Canary Islands (macaronesian ecoregion); (ii) describes a new colouration for this species using evidence from a whale with molecular species confirmation; and (iii) contributes to the sparse worldwide database of live sightings, including the first underwater video recording of this species and close images of a calf. Species identification was confirmed in two cases using mitochondrial DNA control region and cytochrome b gene markers: a subadult male True's beaked whale that stranded in El Hierro, Canary Islands, in November 2012, and a subadult male found floating dead near Faial, the Azores, in July 2004. The whale that stranded in the Canary Islands had a clearly delimited white area on its head, extending posteriorly from the tip of the beak to cover the blowhole dorsally and the gular grooves ventrally. This colouration contrasts with previous descriptions for the species and it may be rare, but it exemplifies the variability of the colouration of True's beaked whales in the North Atlantic, further confirmed here by live sightings data. The recording of several observations of this species in deep but relatively coastal waters off the Azores and the Canary Islands suggests that these archipelagos may be unique locations to study the behaviour of the enigmatic True's beaked whale.
| S-EPMC5344021 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND: The capacity for herpesvirus to cause disease in cetaceans is unclear and may be varied depending on the different conditions of individuals and between different species. Kidney pathology and intralesional virus-associated infection have been rarely reported in cetaceans. RESULT: On April 2004, an old adult male Blainville's beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) 420 cm long with a poor body condition was stranded on Tenerife Island. During necropsy, no gross lesions were observed in the kidneys. However, membranous glomerulonephritis, multifocal interstitial lymphoplasmacytic nephritis and acute multifocal necrotizing tubulointerstitial nephritis with intranuclear inclusion bodies was diagnosed by histological analysis. Tissue samples were submitted for bacteriological analysis and molecular viral screening. CONCLUSION: A novel alpha herpesvirus associated with interstitial nephritis was identified in an old adult male Blainville's beaked whale (M. densirostris) with a poor body condition stranded in the Canary Islands. This report suggests that identification of herpesvirus infection could be used as a differential diagnosis for interstitial nephritis in cetaceans.
| S-EPMC3577509 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The deep sea has been described as the last major ecological frontier, as much of its biodiversity is yet to be discovered and described. Beaked whales (ziphiids) are among the most visible inhabitants of the deep sea, due to their large size and worldwide distribution, and their taxonomic diversity and much about their natural history remain poorly understood. We combine genomic and morphometric analyses to reveal a new Southern Hemisphere ziphiid species, Ramari's beaked whale, Mesoplodon eueu, whose name is linked to the Indigenous peoples of the lands from which the species holotype and paratypes were recovered. Mitogenome and ddRAD-derived phylogenies demonstrate reciprocally monophyletic divergence between M. eueu and True's beaked whale (M. mirus) from the North Atlantic, with which it was previously subsumed. Morphometric analyses of skulls also distinguish the two species. A time-calibrated mitogenome phylogeny and analysis of two nuclear genomes indicate divergence began circa 2 million years ago (Ma), with geneflow ceasing 0.35-0.55 Ma. This is an example of how deep sea biodiversity can be unravelled through increasing international collaboration and genome sequencing of archival specimens. Our consultation and involvement with Indigenous peoples offers a model for broadening the cultural scope of the scientific naming process.
| S-EPMC8548795 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The deep oceans of the Southern Hemisphere are home to several elusive and poorly studied marine megafauna. In the absence of robust observational data for these species, genetic data can aid inferences on population connectivity, demography and ecology. A previous investigation of genetic diversity and population structure in Gray's beaked whale (Mesoplodon grayi) from Western Australia and New Zealand found high levels of mtDNA diversity, no geographic structure and stable demographic history. To further investigate phylogeographic and demographic patterns across their range, we generated complete mitochondrial and partial nuclear genomes of 16 of the individuals previously analysed and included additional samples from South Africa (n = 2) and South Australia (n = 4), greatly expanding the spatial range of genomic data for the species. Gray's beaked whales are highly elusive and rarely observed, and our data represents a unique and geographically broad dataset. We find relatively high levels of diversity in the mitochondrial genome, despite an absence of population structure at the mitochondrial and nuclear level. Demographic analyses suggest these whales existed at stable levels over at least the past 1.1 million years, with an approximately twofold increase in female effective population size approximately 250 thousand years ago, coinciding with a period of increased Southern Ocean productivity, sea surface temperature and a potential expansion of suitable habitat. Our results suggest that Gray's beaked whales are likely to be resilient to near-future ecosystem changes, facilitating their conservation. Our study demonstrates the utility of low-effort shotgun sequencing in providing ecological information on highly elusive species.
| S-EPMC8074979 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Odontocetes (toothed whales) are the most species-rich marine mammal lineage. The catalyst for their evolutionary success is echolocation - a form of biological sonar that uses high-frequency sound, produced in the forehead and ultimately detected by the cochlea. The ubiquity of echolocation in odontocetes across a wide range of physical and acoustic environments suggests that convergent evolution of cochlear shape is likely to have occurred. To test this, we used SURFACE; a method that fits Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) models with stepwise AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) to identify convergent regimes on the odontocete phylogeny, and then tested whether convergence in these regimes was significantly greater than expected by chance. RESULTS:We identified three convergent regimes: (1) True's (Mesoplodon mirus) and Cuvier's (Ziphius cavirostris) beaked whales; (2) sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and all other beaked whales sampled; and (3) pygmy (Kogia breviceps) and dwarf (Kogia sima) sperm whales and Dall's porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli). Interestingly the 'river dolphins', a group notorious for their convergent morphologies and riverine ecologies, do not have convergent cochlear shapes. The first two regimes were significantly convergent, with habitat type and dive type significantly correlated with membership of the sperm whale + beaked whale regime. CONCLUSIONS:The extreme acoustic environment of the deep ocean likely constrains cochlear shape, causing the cochlear morphology of sperm and beaked whales to converge. This study adds support for cochlear morphology being used to predict the ecology of extinct cetaceans.
| S-EPMC6813997 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Cetaceans inhabit oceans throughout the world. Four specific odontocetes, namely Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), Indo Pacific finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides), pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps), and dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima), have occasionally been found stranded along Thailand's coastal waters (the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand). Although shared haplotypes of each species for many locations have been found, and some species have revealed genetic structure through haplotype networks, cetaceans in Thai waters have never been investigated in terms of comparing haplotypes to those that have existed before. Herein, we have illustrated the matrilineally phylogeographic relationships among worldwide populations through Bayesian Phylogenetic tree computations using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and Median-Joining Networks (MJNs). Unique haplotypes of the control region mitochondrial DNA of Thai odontocetes were found for all species. Moreover, a high degree of worldwide haplotype diversity (hd) above 0.8 among the four species was detected, while the lowest degree of nucleotide diversity (π) was observed in the Indo Pacific finless porpoise (1.12% ± 0.184%). An expansion of the effective female population size worldwide of three odontocete species was detected using Bayesian Skyline Reconstruction, but this did not include the Indo Pacific finless porpoise. Because Thai seas are located within the Indo Polynesian province, where this biodiversity hotspot exists, we speculate that these odontocetes may also inhabit specific habitats within the Malay Peninsula and Thailand's territorial waters. Therefore, closer attention and monitoring of these cetacean populations will be necessary for future conservation efforts.
| S-EPMC10450302 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) has caused several mortality events in Mediterranean striped (Stenella coeruleoalba) and bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) dolphins populations since 19; in the last 5 years, the virus was reported to infect new hosts in this basin, such as fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), and even a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Very recently, a calf Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) calf stranded on the Southern Italian coastline with mild pathological findings suggestive of morbilliviral infection, received the first confirmation of DMV infection in this species by biomolecular evidences on lung tissue. This new cross-species infection report, along with 19% of the cetaceans specimens examined by the Italian Stranding Network being found positive to DMV, support the hypothesis of an endemic circulation of this virus among Mediterranean cetaceans.
| S-EPMC5281547 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Beaked whales are deep diving elusive animals, difficult to census with conventional visual surveys. Methods are presented for the density estimation of beaked whales, using passive acoustic monitoring data collected at sites in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) from the period during and following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010-2013). Beaked whale species detected include: Gervais' (Mesoplodon europaeus), Cuvier's (Ziphius cavirostris), Blainville's (Mesoplodon densirostris) and an unknown species of Mesoplodon sp. (designated as Beaked Whale Gulf - BWG). For Gervais' and Cuvier's beaked whales, we estimated weekly animal density using two methods, one based on the number of echolocation clicks, and another based on the detection of animal groups during 5?min time-bins. Density estimates derived from these two methods were in good general agreement. At two sites in the western GOM, Gervais' beaked whales were present throughout the monitoring period, but Cuvier's beaked whales were present only seasonally, with periods of low density during the summer and higher density in the winter. At an eastern GOM site, both Gervais' and Cuvier's beaked whales had a high density throughout the monitoring period.
| S-EPMC4642294 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Mesoplodont beaked whales are one of the most enigmatic mammalian genera. We document a pod of four beaked whales in the Bay of Biscay breaching and tail slapping alongside a large passenger ferry. Photographs of the animals were independently reviewed by experts, and identified as True's beaked whales (Mesoplodon mirus). This is the first conclusive live sighting of these animals in the north-east Atlantic, and adds information to previous sightings that are likely to have been M. mirus. Photographs of an adult male appears to show two supernumerary teeth posterior to the apical mandibular tusks. Whilst analysed museum specimens (n = 8) did not show evidence of alveoli in this location, there is evidence of vestigial teeth and variable dentition in many beaked whale species. This is the first such record of supernumerary teeth in True's beaked whales.
| S-EPMC6796962 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Two types of Berardius are recognised by local whalers in Hokkaido, Japan. The first is the ordinary Baird's beaked whale, B. bairdii, whereas the other is much smaller and entirely black. Previous molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that the black type is one recognisable taxonomic unit within the Berardius clade but is distinct from the two known Berardius species. To determine the characteristics of the black type, we summarised external morphology and skull osteometric data obtained from four individuals, which included three individuals from Hokkaido and one additional individual from the United States National Museum of Natural History collection. The whales differed from all of their congeners by having the following unique characters: a substantially smaller body size of physically mature individuals, proportionately shorter beak, and darker body colour. Thus, we conclude that the whales are a third Berardius species.
| S-EPMC6717206 | biostudies-literature