INVESTIGADORES
FAZIO Ana
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Bennettella ceticola (Nelson ex Bennett) Holmes, on the skin of Franciscana dolphin, Pontoporia blainvillei, in the Argentinean sea
Autor/es:
FAZIO, A.; FERRARIO, M.
Lugar:
Irkutsk, Rusia
Reunión:
Simposio; 19th International Diatom Symposium; 2006
Resumen:
The presence of diatoms on the skin of baleen whales has been reported in many occasions, but there were few observations on small cetaceans. Probably the first observations related to an algal growth over the skin of Antarctic Fin (Balaenoptera physalus Linnaeus) and Blue whales (B. musculus Linnaeus) were done before 1920. Later, studies on those skin samples were performed, the presence of diatoms was confirmed and a new species,Cocconeis ceticola Nelson, was described. Morphological characters of the latter species lead to the transference of C. ceticola, together with related forms, to a new genus Bennettella Holmes. In this report, we present preliminary data based on the occurrence of a diatom film on the skin of Franciscana dolphin. The main goal of the present study was to identify the cetacean diatoms assigned to Bennettella ceticola, and give additional morphological, distributional and environmental information. Bycaught dolphins were collected from gillnets located near San Clemente del Tuyú, Buenos Aires Province Argentina(36º 00?-37º 00?S, 57º 30?-56º 00?W) during a Franciscana Project (March 2005) with radio-tracking in order to study their distribution. Samples were preserved with formalin (4%) and were prepared for light and scanning electron microscope using standard procedures. Our results show that the morphological characters of the organism analyzed here were similar to those provided in the original description and thus constitute the first report of this species for Argentina Despite the fact that this species has been observed mostly in Polar waters and particularly described as an Antarctic diatom, we found that it should be considered as cosmopolitan, due to its existence in Argentinean sea and in Uruguayan waters over the same species of dolphin.