Data from: Reconstructing paternal genotypes to infer patterns of sperm storage and sexual selection in the hawksbill turtle

Postcopulatory sperm storage can serve a range of functions, including
ensuring fertility, allowing delayed fertilization and facilitating sexual
selection. Sperm storage is likely to be particularly important in
wide-ranging animals with low population densities, but its prevalence and
importance in such taxa, and its role in promoting sexual selection, are
poorly known. Here, we use a powerful microsatellite array and paternal
genotype reconstruction to assess the prevalence of sperm storage and test
sexual selection hypotheses of genetic biases to paternity in one such
species, the critically endangered hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys
imbricata. In the majority of females (90.7%, N = 43), all offspring were
sired by a single male. In the few cases of multiple paternity (9.3%), two
males fertilized each female. Importantly, the identity and proportional
fertilization success of males were consistent across all sequential nests
laid by individual females over the breeding season (up to five nests over
75 days). No males were identified as having fertilized more than one
female, suggesting that a large number of males are available to females.
No evidence for biases to paternity based on heterozygosity or relatedness
was found. These results indicate that female hawksbill turtles are
predominantly monogamous within a season, store sperm for the duration of
the nesting season and do not re-mate between nests. Furthermore, females
do not appear to be using sperm storage to facilitate sexual selection.
Consequently, the primary value of storing sperm in marine turtles may be
to uncouple mating and fertilization in time and avoid costly re-mating.