Sousa (genus)
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Sousa is a genus of dolphins (Delphinidae). Because of their hump-like back, they are often referred to as humpback dolphins after the English name humpback dolphins . There are four species, the Cameroon river dolphin ( Sousa teuszii ), the lead-colored dolphin ( Sousa plumbea ), the Chinese white dolphin ( Sousa chinensis ) and Sousa sahulensis , which occurs on the coast of northern Australia and southern New Guinea.
features
Characteristic of the Sousa dolphins is the already mentioned hump that the adult animals have, as well as the elongated dorsal fin . They reach a length of two to three meters. The species themselves differ mainly in the color and size of the fin. The Southeast Asian representatives have white, sometimes pink skin and a larger dorsal fin than the African and Indian representatives.
distribution
The animals of the genus Sousa live in flat coastal regions, the Cameroon river dolphin off the west coast of Africa and the Indo-Pacific forms, on the other hand, are found along the coasts of East Africa , India , Southeast Asia and the coast of northern Australia.
Systematics
The systematics of the genus Sousa is controversial and the subject of current discussions. A total of five species of the genus have been described, in addition to those already mentioned at the beginning, the species Sousa lentiginosa and Sousa borneensis . Until the 1990s, however, only two species were recognized worldwide, the Cameroon river dolphin and the Chinese white dolphin. According to Mendez and colleagues (2013), however, there are certainly four species, whereby the Indo-Pacific form can be divided into three types, from the Sousa plumbea inhabiting the waters up to the east coast of India and Sousa chinensis from there via Southeast Asia to South China. The separation boundary between the two species is roughly at the mouths of Krishna and Godavari . Sousa sahulensis lives on the coast of northern Australia and southern New Guinea.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b Martin Mendez, Thomas J. Jefferson, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Michael Krützen, Guido J. Parra, Tim Collins, Giana Minton, Robert Baldwin, Per Berggren, Anna Särnblad, Omar A. Amir, Vic M. Peddemors, Leszek Karczmarski, Almeida Guissamulo, Brian Smith, Dipani Sutaria, George Amato, Howard C. Rosenbaum. Integrating multiple lines of evidence to better understand the evolutionary divergence of humpback dolphins along their entire distribution range: a new dolphin species in Australian waters? Molecular Ecology, 2013; DOI: 10.1111 / mec.12535
- ↑ a b Thomas A. Jefferson, Howard C. Rosenbaum. Taxonomic revision of the humpback dolphins (Sousa spp.), And description of a new species from Australia. Marine Mammal Science, 2014; DOI: 10.1111 / mms.12152
literature
- Dale W. Rice (1998): Marine Mammals of the World. Systematics and Distribution , Society of Marine Mammalogy as Special Publication No. 4th
- Graham JB Ross (1998): Humpback Dolphins , in: Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals
