Phocoena
| Phocoena | ||||||||||||
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Common porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Phocoena | ||||||||||||
| Cuvier , 1816 |
Phocoena is a genus of porpoises (Phocoenidae), to which four of the six species in the family are counted.
features
Phocoena species reach a maximum length of 1.5 to 2.30 meters. In contrast to the closely related dolphins, they have a rounded head, are beakless and have no conical, but pin or spatula-shaped teeth. Their back is usually gray to dark gray, in the Burmeister porpoise also black and in the spectacled porpoise blue-black, the belly is light or whitish in color. The transition is blurred or sharply delineated (Burmeister porpoise and spectacled porpoise).
The Phocoena species differ from the porpoise ( Neophocaena phocaenoides ) by having a fin , which is often variably shaped within a species and can be triangular, sickle-shaped or large and rounded.
In contrast to the white-flanked porpoise ( Phocoenoides dalli ), the Phocoena species, with the exception of old males of the Burmeister porpoise, do not have a raised tail stalk.
species
- Spectacled porpoise ( Phocoena dioptrica )
- Common porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena )
- California porpoise ( Phocoena sinus )
- Burmeister's porpoise ( Phocoena spinipinnis )
distribution
The common porpoise inhabits coastal temperate seas in the northern hemisphere, the spectacled porpoise lives in a circumpolar manner in the oceans of the southern hemisphere. The coasts of central and southern South America are home to the Burmeister porpoise; the endangered California harbor porpoise has a tiny range in the northern Gulf of California .
Spectacled porpoise
Common porpoise
California porpoise
Burmeister porpoise
literature
- Hadoram Shirihai : marine mammals. All 129 species worldwide. Illustrated by Brett Jarett. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags GmbH, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-440-11277-9 .
