How to Tell a Sea Monster: Molecular Discrimination of Large Marine Animals of the North Atlantic

Remains of large marine animals that wash onshore can be difficult to identify due to decomposition and loss of external body parts, and in consequence may be dubbed "sea monsters." DNA that survives in such carcasses can provide a basis of identification. One such creature washed ashore a...

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Published inThe Biological bulletin (Lancaster) Vol. 202; no. 1; pp. 1 - 5
Main Authors Carr, S. M., Marshall, H. D., Johnstone, K. A., Pynn, L. M., Stenson, G. B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Marine Biological Laboratory 01.02.2002
University of Chicago Press
Subjects
Analysis
Animalia
Animals
Aquatic life
Atlantic Ocean
Biological taxonomies
Classification
DNA
DNA - analysis
DNA, Mitochondrial - chemistry
Genetic aspects
Genetic research
Marine
Marine Biology - methods
Marine mammals
Molecular biology
NAD - genetics
Physeter catodon
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Postmortem Changes
Sea water
Seas
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Sequence Homology
Sequencing
Sharks
Spermatozoa
Systematics of Sea Monsters
Whales
Whales - classification
Whales - genetics
Atlantic Ocean
North Atlantic Ocean
AN, North Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean, North
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Summary:Remains of large marine animals that wash onshore can be difficult to identify due to decomposition and loss of external body parts, and in consequence may be dubbed "sea monsters." DNA that survives in such carcasses can provide a basis of identification. One such creature washed ashore at St. Bernard's, Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, in August 2001. DNA was extracted from the carcass and enzymatically amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR): the mitochondrial NADH2 DNA sequence was identified as that of a sperm whale (Physeter catodon). Amplification and sequencing of cryptozoological DNA with "universal" PCR primers with broad specificity to vertebrate taxa and comparison with species in the Gen-Bank taxonomic database is an effective means of discriminating otherwise unidentifiable large marine creatures.
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ISSN:0006-3185
1939-8697
DOI:10.2307/1543217