True´s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) in Macaronesia
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biodiversity, Genetics, Taxonomy, Zoology
- Keywords
- Ziphiidae, cytochrome b, mtDNA, genetics, colouration patterns, phenotype, North Atlantic
- Copyright
- © 2016 Aguilar de Soto et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. True´s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) in Macaronesia. PeerJ Preprints 4:e1785v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1785v1
Abstract
The True´s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus, True 1913) is a poorly studied member of the speciose Ziphiidae family. Its distribution in the North Hemisphere is thought to be restricted to the temperate or warm temperate waters of the North Atlantic, while a small number of stranding records from the Southern Hemisphere suggest a wider distribution, extending from the Atlantic coast of Brazil to South Africa, Australia and the Tasman Sea coast of New Zealand. Here we i) report the first molecular confirmation of the occurrence of True´s beaked whales around the Azores and Canary Islands (Macaronesian ecoregion), the species’ southern limit in the northeast Atlantic; ii) describe a new colouration for this species; and iii) contribute to the sparse worldwide database of live sightings, including the first underwater video, of this species. In November 2012, a 390 cm male True’s beaked whale stranded in El Hierro, Canary Islands. In July 2004, a subadult male True’s beaked whale was found floating dead near Faial, Azores. Species identification was confirmed in both cases using mitochondrial DNA control region and cytochrome b gene markers. 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 demonstrates that True´s beaked whales show variable colourations in the North Atlantic. This is confirmed by sightings data. Given the presence of this species around the Azores and the Canary Islands, it would be expected that True´s beaked whales also occur in the area between these archipelagos, including the islands of Madeira.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.