10 August 2017

Goodbye short-beaked



The "short-beaked" part of the "short-beaked common dolphin" name has been terminated. It looks like Delphinus delphis is going to be a simple "common dolphin"... again.

Delphinus capensis (the former long-beaked common dolphin) is now considered a synomym of D. delphis: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137094

The news had long been announced, but it seems to have become a reality according to the latest revision of the list of marine mammals species edited by the Society for Marine Mammalogy's Committee of Taxonomy:
http://www.marinemammalscience.org/species-information/list-marine-mammal-species-subspecies/

Goodbye short-beaked?

(Photo by G. Bearzi, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

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