Spotlight on 'sneaky' squid mating
A Professor at the IBERS centre in Aberystwyth University has revealed some “sneaky” squid mating strategies through a global research project.
Paul Shaw, Professor of Population Genetics & Genomics at IBERS has published research findings into the evolution of mating strategies in squid.
In 2008, while at Royal Holloway University of London, he set up a research collaboration with scientists in Japan as part of a larger global network involving groups in the UK, South Africa, Japan, California and Australia, to investigate squid (and other cephalopod) reproduction across the world.
Alongside the researchers in Japan, he looked at the sperm produced by small sneaker males and large consort males and discovered that the sperm produced by the sneaker males was significantly larger than that of the consorts, the first time that such a difference in sperm size has been observed in any animal.
Dr Yoko Iwata from University of Tokyo said, “Sperm size is likely to be an adaptation...