Conference paper
Oceanic giants in the Mediterranean: first mitochondrial analysis of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian seas
Luisa Garofalo
orcid.org/0000-0002-3652-272X
; Centro di Referenza Nazionale per la Medicina Forense Veterinaria, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Regioni Lazio e Toscana, Via Tancia 21, 02100 Rieti, Italy
Rita Lorenzini
; Centro di Referenza Nazionale per la Medicina Forense Veterinaria, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Regioni Lazio e Toscana, Via Tancia 21, 02100 Rieti, Italy
Erica Marchiori
; Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell’Università 16, Agripolis, 35020 Legnaro (Padova), Italy
Lisa Poppi
; Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell’Università 16, Agripolis, 35020 Legnaro (Padova), Italy
Stefania Giglio
; Associazione M.A.R.E. Calabria (Marine Animal Rescue Effort Calabria) c/o Ecomuseo della Pesca e del Mare, Via Giuseppe Mazzini 41, 88060 Montepaone (Catanzaro), Italy
Luca Mizzan
; Museum of Natural History of Venice, Santa Croce 1730, 30125 Venezia, Italy
Nicola Novarini
; Museum of Natural History of Venice, Santa Croce 1730, 30125 Venezia, Italy
Abstract
The leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761) is an occasional trophic visitor of the Mediterranean basin. So far, very few individuals have been genetically analysed from this sea and none from Italy. We sequenced a mitochondrial DNA fragment of three specimens of D. coriacea found in recent years along the North-Adriatic and Tyrrhenian shores. They were all females approaching adult stage. Causes of death were attributable to the main threats for sea turtles in Mediterranean waters, all related to human activities (collisions with boats, entanglement in fishing nets and plastic debris ingestion). Two different mitochondrial haplotypes were observed, with the two North-Adriatic turtles sharing the same one. Compared to known Dermochelys sequences and previous genetic characterization of rookeries, these results suggest that the most probable origin of at least two of the three leatherbacks was the western Atlantic.
Keywords
leatherback turtle; mtDNA; origin; central Mediterranean; human threats
Hrčak ID:
249250
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2020.
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