Tursiops

Tursiops
	Bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus )
Systematics
Superordinate :	Laurasiatheria
Order :	Whales (cetacea)
Subordination :	Toothed whales (Odontoceti)
Superfamily :	Dolphin-like (Delphinoidea)
Family :	Dolphins (Delphinidae)
Genre :	Tursiops
Scientific name
	Tursiops
	Gervais , 1855

Tursiops is a genus of dolphins (Delphinidae). The genus includes a total of three, very similar species - the bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus ), the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops aduncus ) and the Burrunan dolphin ( Tursiops australis ),which was only described in 2011.

distribution

The bottlenose dolphin inhabits the tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of all oceans and is also found in the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, on the other hand, is found mainly in Indo-Pacific, tropical coastal waters above the continental shelf. It occurs from the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa across the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific. The Burrunan Dolphin has a very small range on the coast and in lagoons in the Australian state of Victoria .

features

Tursiops species reach a maximum length of 2.6 to 4.10 meters, females usually remain somewhat smaller. They are largely monochrome gray to blue-gray in color. The ventral side is usually lighter. The beak (snout) is shorter in relation to the length of the head than in the Delphinus and Stenella species. The melon is well defined and set off from the muzzle by a fold. The fin is large and sickle-shaped.

Systematics

For a long time the bottlenose dolphin was the only species of the genus Tursiops . The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, which was described in 1833, has only been recognized as an independent species since 2001. In 2011, the Burrunan dolphin was added as the third species of the genus. The examined sections of its mitochondria genome differ by 5.5 and 9.1 percent from those of the two other Tursiops species, which is more than in other dolphin species that are placed in the same genus. Sister species of the Burrunan dolphin is said to be the East Pacific dolphin ( Stenella longirostris ). The authors of the first description assume that the species will be placed in its own genus in a future revision of the dolphin family and are already proposing Tursiodelphis as the genus name.

literature

Hadoram Shirihai : marine mammals. All 129 species worldwide. Illustrated by Brett Jarett. Franckh-Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-440-11277-9 .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c K. Charlton-Robb, L. Gershwin, R. Thompson, J. Austin, K. Owen, and others. a .: A New Dolphin Species, the Burrunan Dolphin Tursiops australis sp. nov., Endemic to Southern Australian Coastal Waters. In: PLoS ONE 6 (9), 2011, e24047. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0024047
↑ Luciana M. Möller, Luciano B. Beheregaray: Coastal bottlenose dolphins from southeastern Australia are Tursiops aduncus according to sequences of the mitochondrial DNA control region. In: Marine Mammal Science . 17 (2), 2001, pp. 249-263.

Web links

Commons : Tursiops - collection of images, videos and audio files

[Burrunan-Delfin-1] K. Charlton-Robb, L. Gershwin, R. Thompson, J. Austin, K. Owen, and others. a .: A New Dolphin Species, the Burrunan Dolphin Tursiops australis sp. nov., Endemic to Southern Australian Coastal Waters. In: PLoS ONE 6 (9), 2011, e24047. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0024047

[2] Luciana M. Möller, Luciano B. Beheregaray: Coastal bottlenose dolphins from southeastern Australia are Tursiops aduncus according to sequences of the mitochondrial DNA control region. In: Marine Mammal Science . 17 (2), 2001, pp. 249-263.