Common dolphins
Size comparison an average human
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 2.3)[1][2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Cetacea Family: Delphinidae Genus: Delphinus Species: D. delphis D. capensis
Binomial name
Delphinus capensis Gray, 1828
Delphinus delphis Linnaeus, 1758
Short-beaked Common Dolphin range

The Common Dolphin is the name given to up to three species of dolphin making up the genus Delphinus. This picture was taken from http://nmml. ... The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species remaining extant either in the present day or the near future. ... Image File history File links Status_iucn2. ... Least Concern (LC) is an IUCN category assigned to extant species or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. ... The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List and Red Data List), created in 1963, is the worlds most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species and can be found here. ... Scientific classification redirects here. ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Subclasses & Infraclasses Subclass †Allotheria* Subclass Prototheria Subclass Theria Infraclass †Trituberculata Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria For the folk-rock band see The Mammals. ... Suborders Mysticeti Odontoceti Archaeoceti (extinct) (see text for families) The order Cetacea (IPA: , L. cetus, whale) includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. ... Genera See text Oceanic dolphins are the members of the Delphinidae family of cetaceans. ... Latin name redirects here. ... John Edward Gray. ... Carl Linnaeus, Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as  , (May 13, 1707[1] – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[2] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1357x628, 36 KB) Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... For other uses, see Dolphin (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Genus (disambiguation). ...

Prior to the mid-1990s, most taxonomists only recognised one species in this genus, the Common Dolphin Delphinus delphis. Modern cetologists usually recognise two species - the Short-beaked Common Dolphin, which retains the systematic name Delphinus delphis, and the Long-beaked Common Dolphin D. capensis. Despite its name the common dolphin is not the dolphin of popular imagination - that distinction belongs to the Bottlenose Dolphin, largely due to the television series Flipper.^{[citation needed]} For the science of classifying living things, see alpha taxonomy. ... No branch of Zoology is so much involved as that which is entitled Cetology - from Moby Dick by Herman Melville. ... Binomial name Montagu, 1821 Bottlenose Dolphin range (in blue) The Bottlenose Dolphin is one of the most common and well-known dolphins. ... A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ... Flipper is an American television program first broadcast on NBC from September 18, 1964 until April 15, 1967. ...

Differentiating species

Despite the historic practice of lumping the entire Delphinus genus into a single species, these widely distributed dolphins exhibit a wide variety of size, shape and colour. Indeed over the past few decades over 20 distinct species in the genus have been proposed. Scientists in California in the 1960s concluded that there were two species - the long-beaked and short-beaked. This analysis was essentially confirmed by a more in-depth genetic study in the 1990s. This study also suggested that a third species (D. tropicalis, common name usually Arabian Common Dolphin), characterized by an extremely long and thin beak and found in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, might be distinguished from the long-beaked species. The current standard taxonomic works recognize this as just a regional variety.

Distribution

The common dolphin is widely distributed in temperate, sub-tropical and tropical waters throughout the world in a band roughly spanning 40 degrees south to 50 degrees north. The variation in make-up described above from one population to the next suggested little interaction between distinct groups The species typically prefer enclosed bodies of water such as the Red and Mediterranean Seas. Deep off-shore waters and to a lesser extent over continental shelves are preferred to shallow waters. Some populations may be present all year round, others appear to move in a migratory pattern. Preferred surface water temperature is 10-28 degrees Celsius. The sum population is unknown but numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... Mediterranean redirects here. ...

Behaviour

Common dolphins travel in groups of around 10-50 in number and frequently gather into schools numbering 100 to 2000 individuals. These schools are generally very active - groups often surface, jump and splash together. Typical behaviour includes breaching, tail-slapping, chin-slapping, bow-riding and porpoising.

The dolphins have been seen to mix with other cetaceans such as other dolphins in the Yellowfin tuna grounds of the eastern Pacific and also schools of Pilot Whales. An intriguing theory suggests that dolphins 'bow-riding' on very large whales was the origin of bow-riding on boats. Binomial name Bonnaterre, 1788 The yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), is a type of tuna eaten by humans as food. ... For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Globicephala macrorhynchus Gray, 1846 Short-finned Pilot Whale range Globicephala melas Traill, 1809 Long-finned Pilot Whale range Calderón redirects here. ...

The gestation period is about 11 months and the calving period is between one and three years. Sexual maturation occurs at five years and longevity is twenty to twenty-five years. These figures are subject to large variation across different populations.

Conservation

Common dolphins face a mixture of threats due to human influence. Moderate levels of metal pollutants have been measured in some populations ^[3]. Populations have been hunted off the coast of Peru for use as food and shark bait. In most other areas the dolphins have not been hunted directly. Several thousand individuals have been caught in industrial trawler nets throughout their range. Common dolphins were abundant in the western Mediterranean Sea until the 1960s but occurrences there have tailed off rapidly. The reasons are not well understood but are believed to be due to extensive human activity in the area. In the U.S. they are a protected species and sometimes are caught by accident in some trawler nets as bycatch, though despite this they are still quite common throughout their range. For other uses, see Shark (disambiguation). ...

References

1. Rice, Dale W. (1998). Marine mammals of the world: systematics and distribution. Society of Marine Mammalogy Special Publication Number 4. 231 pp.
2. National Audubon Society Guide to Marine Mammals of the World ISBN 0-375-41141-0
3. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals ISBN 0-12-551340-2
4. Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, Mark Carwardine, ISBN 0-7513-2781-

External links

• Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society