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Twin foetuses in an Atlantic white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus) stranded on the coast of Scotland, UK

Published: 2016

Research Scotland: 20.500.12594/11747

Authors:

  • Nicholas J. Davison

  • Mariel T. I. Ten Doeschate

  • Mark P. Dagleish

  • Fiona L. Read

  • Robert J. Reid

  • Geoffrey Foster

  • Andrew Brownlow

  • Jason Barley

Is Part of:

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 96, 4, pp841-844.

Abstract:

The present study is the first record of twinning in Lagenorhynchus acutus and indeed any Lagenorhynchus sp. Both foetuses were male and located in the left uterine horn, had distinct grossly normal placentas and amniotic sacs, and were therefore likely dizygotic twins. The twins were an incidental finding in an animal that died of a systemic Brucella ceti infection.

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