Multiple paternity appears to be a common trait of elasmobranch mating systems, with its
occurrence likely driven by convenience, due to females seeking to minimize the stress of
male harassment. Here we use molecular markers to analyse the frequency of multiple
paternity in two related viviparous sharks, Mustelus mustelus and Mustelus punctulatus. We
first applied molecular methods to assign pregnant females, embryos and additional
reference adults (N= 792) to one of the two species. Paternity analysis was performed using …

Multiple paternity appears to be a common trait of elasmobranch mating systems, with its
occurrence likely driven by convenience, due to females seeking to minimize the stress of
male harassment. Here we use molecular markers to analyse the frequency of multiple
paternity in two related viviparous sharks, Mustelus mustelus and Mustelus punctulatus. We
first applied molecular methods to assign pregnant females, embryos and additional
reference adults (N= 792) to one of the two species. paternity analysis was performed using …