Abstract
The evolution of thunniform swimming in sharks involves many morphological modifications that enhance the energetic efficiency of aquatic locomotion. The present study describes a clasper pocket, a male-specific groove to “stow” claspers close to the body, as a novel example of such modifications. According to observations in two lamnoid species, Lamna ditropis and Isurus oxyrinchus, the groove becomes drastically deeper along with clasper elongation through ontogeny. The clasper pocket was found in sharks with a thunniform body plan, so far only observed in Lamnidae and Cetorhinidae. The number of acquisitions of clasper pockets during lamniform phylogeny assessment ranges from one to two, depending on the interpretation regarding the phylogenetic relationships between Lamnidae and Cetorhinidae in the phylogenetic tree is used in the analysis.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the following for their access to the specimens at Kesennuma Fish Market: Kesennuma Fishery Cooperative, Masayasu Kawamura at Fukuju Marine Products Co., and Yoji Niinuma and other staff at Kesennuma Shark Museum. We also thank Kazuhiro Nakaya (Hokkaido University), Sho Tanaka (Tokai University), Yasunari Suzuki, and Masayuki Nakamura (Marine World Uminonakamichi), who provided us with the unpublished photographs of Megachasma pelagios, Cetorhinus maximus, and Carcharias taurus. Toshio Kawai and Fumihito Tashiro (Hokkaido University) allowed us to access the specimens housed at the Hokkaido University Museum. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 17K19334, 17K18451, 18K05838, and the admission fees for the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.
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Tomita, T., Nakamura, M., Miyamoto, K. et al. Clasper pocket: adaptation of a novel morphological feature by lamnoid sharks, which aids with tuna-like swimming. Zoomorphology 140, 365–371 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-021-00532-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-021-00532-6