Credit: Georgia Aquarium
Shark scientists at Georgia Aquarium, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and Dalhousie University are challenging the status quo in shark and ray mating research in a new study that looks at biological drivers of multiple paternity in these animals. The results were published March 4 in the journal
Molecular Ecology.
Many species of sharks and rays exhibit multiple paternity, where females give birth to a litter of pups that have different fathers. While widely documented in scientific literature, the drivers of this phenomenon are not well understood. However, previous research has cited male aggression as the reason, claiming that the females are unable to avoid or submit to their advances during mating. This has led to the "convenience polyandry" theory, the assumption that there is a greater cost for females when refusing male mating attempts, as being the most widely credited explanation.