Record of the rough toothed dolphin Steno bredanensis (G. Cuvier in Lesson, 1828) in Indian seas after 19th century

Abstract

A specimen of the rare delphinid Steno bredanensis, was washed ashore on 25 August 2008 in Uttara Kannada, south-west coast of India. This report presents the first stranding record of S. bredanensis in Indian waters after more than 100 years as the previous confirmed record was only in 1891. There were a few stranding records of this species in 19th century, but thereafter no single record is available till now. The number of records between the years 1800 and 1900 were only 3. Earlier works from Indian seas depended on conventional taxonomic approaches which led to misidentification of species. Skin samples were collected for genetic analysis and the genes of control region (CR) and cytochrome b (cyt b) of MtDNA were PCR amplified and sequenced. Partial sequences of mtDNA control region and cytochrome b genes were generated and tested with the reference sequences available in GenBank (NCBI) and the web-based program DNA Surveillance, and the specimen was confirmed as Steno bredanensis. Amplification of sex Y chromosome gene SRY confirmed the visual identification of the specimen as a male.