Evidence of multiple paternity in Morelet's Crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) in Belize, CA, inferred from microsatellite markers

Abstract

Microsatellite data were generated from hatchlings collected from ten nests of Morelet's Crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) from New River Lagoon and Gold Button Lagoon in Belize to test for evidence of multiple paternity. Nine microsatellite loci were genotyped for 188 individuals from the 10 nests, alongside 42 nonhatchlings from Gold Button Lagoon. Then mitochondrial control region sequences were generated for the nonhatchlings and for one individual from each nest to test for presence of C. acutus-like haplotypes. Analyses of five of the nine microsatellite loci revealed evidence that progeny from five of the ten nests were sired by at least two males. These data suggest the presence of multiple paternity as a mating strategy in the true crocodiles. This information may be useful in the application of conservation and management techniques to the 12 species in this genus, most of which are threatened or endangered.

Crocodilian behaviour: a window to dinosaur behaviour?

“…Mounting either results in the female breaking off the contact by swimming away or in copulation (Garrick and Lang 1977). Recent studies have shown that some female A. mississippiensis and Morelet's crocodile, Crocodylus moreletii, may mate with more than one male during mating season (Lisa et al 2001;McVay et al 2008;Lance et al 2009). Despite this, Lance et al (2009) showed that 70% of females in their study showed long-term mate fidelity, mating with the same male over a period of years.…”

Mating system and population analysis of the broad-snouted caiman (Caiman latirostris) using microsatellite markers

“…Applying these markers variability estimates on crocodilians were higher than values obtained using methods previously mentioned (Glenn et al, 1998;Davis et al, 2000Davis et al, , 2002Fitzsimmons et al, 2000Fitzsimmons et al, , 2002Dever et al, 2002;de Thoisy et al, 2006). Several authors have also used microsatellite amplification for genealogical and mating system studies on crocodilians (Davis et al, 2001;Isberg et al, 2004;McVay et al, 2008;Weaver et al, 2008;de Oliveira et al, 2010;Hu and Wu, 2010).…”

“…Multiple paternity (i.e. the existence of more than a father siring one nest) has been shown theoretically to increase effective population size (Sugg and Chesser, 1994), thus potentially increasing the overall genetic diversity of a population, particularly those populations that have recently undergone a genetic bottleneck (McVay et al, 2008). This mating strategy has been reported in different vertebrate groups: fishes (Weir et al, 2010), birds (Leisler and Wink, 2000;Dunn et al, 2009), mammals (Kitchen et al, 2006;Gottelli et al, 2007), amphibians (Adams et al, 2005), turtles (Jensen et al, 2006), lizards (Berry, 2006), and snakes (Madsen et al, 2005).…”

Multiple paternity in the Black Caiman (Melanosuchus niger) population in the Anavilhanas National Park, Brazilian Amazonia

“…Multiple paternity appears to be a frequently encountered pattern in reptiles including lizards (e.g., Laloi et al, 2004;Fitze et al, 2005;Eizaguirre et al, 2007), snakes (e.g., McCracken et al, 1999;Garner and Larsen, 2005;Voris, 2008), turtles and tortoises (e.g., FitzSimmons, 1998;Valenzuela, 2000;Johnston et al, 2006;Pearse et al, 2006;Fantin et al, 2008) and crocodilians such as Alligator mississippiensis (Davis et al, 2001), Caiman latirostris Amavet et al, 2008), Caiman crocodilus crocodilus (Oliveira, 2010), Caiman crocodilus yacare (Godshalk, 2002), Crocodylus moreletii (McVay et al, 2008) and Alligator sinensis (Hu and Wu, 2010). A molecular analysis of the mating system of Melanosuchus niger has yet to be studied, however.…”

“…Knowledge of the mating system of an organism is, therefore, important for developing management and conservation strategies, especially when isolated populations are comprised of small numbers of individuals, because multiple paternity has direct consequences for effective population sizes and evolutionary potential (Sugg and Chesser, 1994;Chesser and Baker, 1996). McVay et al (2008) posed the following question: "Is polyandrous behavior a common ancestral strategy among crocodilians or did it arise independently in different taxa?" In order to answer this question, studies involving the paternity test are needed for many other crocodilian species that have yet to be investigated, but the present study contributes to answering this question.…”