Range-wide variation in grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) skull morphology

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  • Anders Galatius
  • Michelle Strecker Svendsen
  • Dolores Messer
  • Mia Valtonen
  • Michael McGowen
  • Richard Sabin
  • Vedrana Andersen Dahl
  • Anders Bjorholm Dahl
  • Olsen, Morten Tange

The large interspecific variation in marine mammal skull and dental morphology reflects ecological specialisations to foraging and communication. At the intraspecific level, the drivers of skull shape variation are less well understood, having implications for identifying putative local foraging adaptations and delineating populations and subspecies for taxonomy, systematics, management and conservation. Here, we assess the range-wide intraspecific variation in 71 grey seal skulls by 3D surface scanning, collection of cranial landmarks and geometric morphometric analysis. We find that skull shape differs slightly between populations in the Northwest Atlantic, Northeast Atlantic and Baltic Sea. However, there was a large shape overlap between populations and variation was substantially larger among animals within populations than between. We hypothesize that this pattern of intraspecific variation in grey seal skull shape results from balancing selection or phenotypic plasticity allowing for a remarkably generalist foraging behaviour. Moreover, the large overlap in skull shape between populations implies that the separate subspecies status of Atlantic and Baltic Sea grey seals is questionable from a morphological point of view.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer126023
TidsskriftZoology
Vol/bind153
Antal sider7
ISSN0944-2006
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to dedicate this paper to our friend and colleague Pavel Gol’din, his loved ones and his country, Ukraine. We thank Collection Manager Daniel Klingberg Johansson and Conservator Mikkel Høegh Post at the Natural History Museum of Denmark for their continuous support to all things seal. Further, we thank John Ososky at NMNH for assistance to MSS. The research was supported by travel grants from Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening , Bøje Benzon Rejsefond and EvoGenomics Section Grant to MSS, a Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation grant to MV, as well as the BONUS BALTHEALTH project (Art. 185) awarded to MTO and AG. BONUS BALTHEALTH was funded jointly by the EU , Innovation Fund Denmark (grants 6180–00001 B and 6180–00002B ), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH , German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant FKZ 03F0767A ), Academy of Finland (grant 311966 ) and Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research ( MISTRA ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors

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