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

¹ Genetics, Evolution, and Molecular Systematics Laboratory, Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland A1B 3X9, Canada
² Marine Mammals Section, Science, Oceans, and Environment Branch, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, PO Box 5667, St. John’s, Newfoundland A1C 5X1, Canada

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: scarr{at}mun.ca

Abstract.

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 GenBank taxonomic database is an effective means of discriminating otherwise unidentifiable large marine creatures.

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