Pygmy sperm whale discovered in the Mediterranean thanks to environmental DNA
An Italia team identified genetic traces of Kogia breviceps in Mediterranean waters, revealing the presence of this elusive species that has never been directly sighted.
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Environmental DNA, i.e. the set of genetic traces that an organism leaves behind in the environment, has made it possible to discover the presence of a new inhabitant of the Mediterranean Sea, never before directly sighted: the pygmy sperm whale, scientific name 'Kogia breviceps', which was thought to be completely absent from these waters.
The discovery, published in the journal Mammal Review, is due to the international research team led by the University of Milano-Bicocca and in which the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station of Naples and the Superior Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra) of Rome also participated.
"Environmental DNA has allowed us to 'see' a species that had always remained hidden," says Elena Valsecchi, who led the study, "showing that there is still so much to discover even in the seas we thought we knew inside out.
The researchers sampled seawater by travelling on commercial ferries: in total, 12 litres of water were collected for each of the 393 sampling points.
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Ten different samples contained the DNA of K. breviceps, an elusive cetacean that reaches 3-3.5 metres in length and feeds mainly on squid. The traces are distributed over a vast area, stretching from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar.
