Dear Marmammers,
my co-authors and I are pleased to announce the following publication: Cunha HA, Loizaga de Castro R, Secchi ER, Crespo EA, Lailson-Brito J, Azevedo AF, Lazoski C, Solé-Cava AM (2015) Molecular and Morphological Differentiation of Common Dolphins (Delphinus sp.) in the SouthwesternAtlantic: Testing the Two Species Hypothesis in Sympatry. PLoS One 10(11):e0140251. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140251 Abstract: Thetaxonomy of common dolphins (Delphinus sp.) has always been controversial, withover twenty described species since the original description of the typespecies of the genus (Delphinus delphis Linnaeus, 1758). Two species and foursubspecies are currently accepted, but recent molecular data have challengedthis view. In this study we investigated the molecular taxonomy of commondolphins through analyses of cytochrome b sequences of 297 individuals frommost of their distribution. We included 37 novel sequences from theSouthwestern Atlantic Ocean, a region where the short- and long-beakedmorphotypes occur in sympatry, but which had not been well sampled before.Skulls of individuals from the Southwestern Atlantic were measured to test thevalidity of the rostral index as a diagnostic character and confirmed thepresence of the two morphotypes in our genetic sample. Our genetic results showthat all common dolphins in the Atlantic Ocean belong to a single species,Delphinus delphis. According to genetic data, the species Delphinus capensis isinvalid. Long-beaked common dolphins from the Northeastern Pacific Ocean mayconstitute a different species. Our conclusions prompt the need for revision ofcurrently accepted common dolphin species and subspecies and of Delphinusdelphis distribution. The pdf can be downloaded from: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140251. Alternatively, pdf requests can be addressed to haydeecu...@yahoo.com.br. Cheers, Haydée ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Haydée A. Cunha, PhD MAQUA - Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos e Bioindicadores (UERJ) Faculdade de Oceanografia Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524 / Sl. 4002-E Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brasil CEP 20.550-013 Tel: +55 (21) 2334-0065+55 (21) 2334-0065 / 99981-8382CallSend SMSCall from mobileAdd to SkypeYou'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype
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