RESEARCH ARTICLE
Clasper Flaring: Maintenance Behavior, or a Normally Hidden Feature of Male Whitetip Reef Sharks, Triaenodon Obesus?
EK Ritter1, *, LVJ Compagno2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 6
First Page: 10
Last Page: 12
Publisher Id: TOFISHSJ-6-10
DOI: 10.2174/1874401X01306010010
Article History:
Received Date: 10/11/2012Revision Received Date: 28/12/2012
Acceptance Date: 29/12/2013
Electronic publication date: 08/3/2013
Collection year: 2013
© 2013 Ritter and Compagno.
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Male whitetip reef sharks, Triaenodon obsesus, are able to pivot their claspers beyond regular flexing, including spreading their distal tips in a funnel like fashion. The feature of this extended clasper flexing, labelled clasper flaring, is described here. It is speculated to possibly reflect a pre- or post-copulation-related behavior.
Keywords: Clasper, copulation, flexing, shark, Triaenodon obsesus.
