TY - JOUR
T1 - Deep-sea hydrothermal vents as natural egg-case incubators at the Galapagos Rift
AU - Salinas-De-León, Pelayo
AU - Phillips, Brennan
AU - Ebert, David
AU - Shivji, Mahmood
AU - Cerutti-Pereyra, Florencia
AU - Ruck, Cassandra
AU - Fisher, Charles R.
AU - Marsh, Leigh
N1 - Funding Information:
We are thankful to the Ocean Exploration Trust as well as the pilots and crew aboard the E/V Nautilus during cruise NA064 for their assistance in sample collection and exploration using the Hercules ROV. Thank you to the NOAA Office of Exploration and Research for funding the E/V Nautilus Exploration Program (NA15OAR0110220). Further acknowledgements and thanks go out to the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Directorate for their collaboration and assistance in the exploration of the Galapagos Platform conducted under research permit No. PC-45-15. We also gratefully recognize the Government of Ecuador via the Ecuadorian Navy for permission to operate in their territorial waters. This research was supported by a grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust and Save Our Seas Foundation (genetics analysis). This is contribution number 2184 from the Charles Darwin Research Station.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - The discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in 1977 challenged our views of ecosystem functioning and yet, the research conducted at these extreme and logistically challenging environments still continues to reveal unique biological processes. Here, we report for the first time, a unique behavior where the deep-sea skate, Bathyraja spinosissima, appears to be actively using the elevated temperature of a hydrothermal vent environment to naturally "incubate" developing egg-cases. We hypothesize that this behavior is directly targeted to accelerate embryo development time given that deep-sea skates have some of the longest egg incubation times reported for the animal kingdom. Similar egg incubating behavior, where eggs are incubated in volcanically heated nesting grounds, have been recorded in Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs and the rare avian megapode. To our knowledge, this is the first time incubating behavior using a volcanic source is recorded for the marine environment.
AB - The discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in 1977 challenged our views of ecosystem functioning and yet, the research conducted at these extreme and logistically challenging environments still continues to reveal unique biological processes. Here, we report for the first time, a unique behavior where the deep-sea skate, Bathyraja spinosissima, appears to be actively using the elevated temperature of a hydrothermal vent environment to naturally "incubate" developing egg-cases. We hypothesize that this behavior is directly targeted to accelerate embryo development time given that deep-sea skates have some of the longest egg incubation times reported for the animal kingdom. Similar egg incubating behavior, where eggs are incubated in volcanically heated nesting grounds, have been recorded in Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs and the rare avian megapode. To our knowledge, this is the first time incubating behavior using a volcanic source is recorded for the marine environment.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-20046-4
DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-20046-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 29422624
AN - SCOPUS:85041917770
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 8
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
IS - 1
M1 - 1788
ER -