Dear Colleagues, my co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of our work in Mammalian Biology: Autenrieth, M., Ernst, A., Deaville, R., Demaret, F., IJsseldijk, L.L., Siebert, U. and Tiedemann, R. (2018) Putative origin and maternal relatedness of male sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) recently stranded in the North Sea. Mammalian Biology 88 (156–160); doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2017.09.003 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2017.09.003> The paper is available online here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1616504717301337 It can be access for free (for the next 50 days) here: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1WN795lZFLSzPP Abstract: The globally distributed sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) has a partly matrilineal social structure with predominant male dispersal. At the beginning of 2016, a total of 30 male sperm whales stranded in five different countries bordering the southern North Sea. It has been postulated that these individuals were on a migration route from the north to warmer temperate and tropical waters where females live in social groups. By including samples from four countries (n = 27), this event provided a unique chance to genetically investigate the maternal relatedness and the putative origin of these temporally and spatially co-occuring male sperm whales. To utilize existing genetic resources, we sequenced 422 bp of the mitochondrial control region, a molecular marker for which sperm whale data are readily available from the entire distribution range. Based on four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the mitochondrial control region, five matrilines could be distinguished within the stranded specimens, four of which matched published haplotypes previously described in the Atlantic. Among these male sperm whales, multiple matrilineal lineages co-occur. We analyzed the population differentiation and could show that the genetic diversity of these male sperm whales is comparable to the genetic diversity in sperm whales from the entire Atlantic Ocean. We confirm that within this stranding event, males do not comprise maternally related individuals and apparently include assemblages of individuals from different geographic regions. Kind regards, Marijke Autenrieth -- Marijke Autenrieth, M.Sc. PhD student phone: 0049-(0)-331-977-5586 email: marauten@uni-potsdam.de web: https://mammalsevolve.wordpress.com/ Universität Potsdam Evolutionsbiologie Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25 14476 Golm