Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

Genetic evidence for multiple paternity in the critically endangered Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer)

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Evelyn JensenORCiD

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.


Abstract

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2016.Conservation strategies can be most effective when factors influencing the persistence of populations are wellunderstood, including aspects of reproductive biology such as mating system. Crocodylians have been traditionally associated with a polygynous mating system, with genetic studies revealingmultiple paternity of clutches in several species. The endemic Cuban crocodile, Crocodylus rhombifer, is currently listed as Critically Endangered, and is one of the least understood crocodylian species in terms of its mating behavior. Here, we tested a hypothesis of multiple paternity in the Cuban crocodile by collecting genotypic data at nine microsatellite loci for 102 hatchlings from five nests sampled at the Zapata Swamp captive breeding facility and analyzing them in relation to data previously collected for 137 putative parents. All five nests showed evidence of multiple paternity based on the numbers of alleles per locus, with sibship analyses reconstructing all nests as having four to six full-sib family groups. Accordingly, mean pairwise relatedness values per nest ranged from 0.21 to 0.39, largely intermediate between theoretical expected values for half-siblings (0.25) and full-siblings (0.50). It is not possible to differentiate whether the multiple paternity of a nest was due to multiple matings during the same breeding season, or a result of sperm storage. Our results reveal that the C. rhombifer mating system is likely best characterized as promiscuous and suggest that the standard practice of enforcing a 1:2 sex ratio at the captive breeding facility should be altered in order to better maintain a demographically and genetically healthy ex situ population.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Milian-Garcia Y, Jensen EL, Mena SR, Fleitas EP, Rodriguez GS, Manchena LG, Lopez GE, Russello MA

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Amphibia Reptilia

Year: 2016

Volume: 37

Issue: 3

Pages: 273-281

Print publication date: 01/01/2016

Online publication date: 13/09/2016

Acceptance date: 01/01/1900

ISSN (print): 0173-5373

ISSN (electronic): 1568-5381

Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers

URL: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685381-00003056

DOI: 10.1163/15685381-00003056


Altmetrics

Altmetrics provided by Altmetric


Share