Genetic examination of historical North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) bone specimens from the eastern North Atlantic: Insights into species history, transoceanic population structure, and genetic diversity

Abstract

Species monitoring and conservation is increasingly challenging under current climate change scenarios. For the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) this challenge is heightened by the added effects of complicated and uncertain past species demography. Right whales once had a much wider distribution across the North Atlantic Ocean, although the degree to which right whales in the western and eastern North Atlantic were genetically isolated remains unknown.We analyzed DNA from 24 4th-20th century (CE) right whale bone specimens that were collected from 10 historical and archaeological sites in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Scotland. Following mtDNA species identification, we obtained 15-locus nuclear microsatellite profiles from a subset of eight specimens and compared these to contemporary data from animals remaining in the western North Atlantic population. While some specimens share mtDNA haplotypes with the contemporary population, several new haplotypes were

Whales and climate

“…Analysis of habitat use behaviors of kin shows that individuals are more likely to use the Gulf of St. Lawrence if their mother does as well, mirroring maternally influenced migratory and foraging site fidelity documented in southern right whales (Valenzuela et al, 2009;Carroll et al, 2015), and providing further support for matrilineally directed site fidelity in North Atlantic right whales that has been previously observed in both current and historical populations (Malik et al, 1999;Frasier et al, 2022). This result, as well as the size of the proportion of the population that uses the Gulf of St. Lawrence, suggests that learned behavior exists within family groups, including older juveniles and sexually mature whales.…”

“…Strong, but nonsignificant evidence was later found that the transmission of this site information is linked between mothers and daughters (Malik et al, 1999). Finally, recent genetic evidence from ancient whale bones revealed that maternally inherited site fidelity likely played a significant role in defining the habitat use patterns of historic right whale populations (Frasier et al, 2022).…”

Historical Mitogenomic Diversity and Population Structuring of Southern Hemisphere Fin Whales

“…Since breeding site fidelity (and for some species, potential feeding site fidelity) is thought to be inherited multi-generationally through maternal lines for most species [73][74][75], this can set up a complex pattern whereby high diversity is maintained long-term through multiple sets of mtDNA lineages being associated with groups of animals (multiple generations) that preferentially visit particular combinations of breeding and feeding sites. Where exploitation had taken place for many centuries (i.e., grey whales, right whales), lower diversity has been observed in the contemporary populations [42,76]. In contrast, for most species hunted predominantly during the 20th-century whaling period, high diversity remains, perhaps, due to the short period of hunting relative to the long life of the species (e.g., [45]).…”

The prelude to industrial whaling: identifying the targets of ancient European whaling using zooarchaeology and collagen mass-peptide fingerprinting

“…However, despite recent advances in the study of archaeological whale remains (e.g. [ 8 , 9 ]), we still lack deep-time baseline empirical data concerning the spatio-temporal range and human exploitation of past populations. In order to manage whale species more effectively, an improved understanding of past populations and past whaling activities has to be achieved.…”