Cephalorhynchus

For the daisy-like plant genus, see Cephalorrhynchus.

Not to be confused with Cephalorhyncha (genus).

Cephalorhynchus Temporal range: Holocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Commerson's dolphin
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Suborder:	Whippomorpha
Infraorder:	Cetacea
Family:	Delphinidae
Subfamily:	Lissodelphininae
Genus:	Cephalorhynchus Gray, 1846
Type species
Delphinus heavisidii [1] Gray, 1828
Species
C. australis C. commersonii C. cruciger C. eutropia C. heavisidii C. hectori

Cephalorhynchus is a genus in the dolphin family Delphinidae.

Extant species

It consists of six species:

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Peale's dolphin	C. australis	Southern South America
	Commerson's dolphin	C. commersonii	Argentina including Puerto Deseado, in the Strait of Magellan and around Tierra del Fuego, and near the Falkland Islands, near the Kerguelen Islands in the southern part of the Indian Ocean
	Hourglass dolphin	C. cruciger	Argentina, Chile, New Zealand
	Chilean dolphin	C. eutropia	coast of Chile
	Heaviside's dolphin	C. heavisidii	coast of northern Namibia at 17°S and as far south as the southern tip of South Africa
	Hector's dolphin	C. hectori	coastal regions of New Zealand

The species have similar physical features—they are small, generally playful, blunt-nosed dolphins—but they are found in distinct geographical locations.

A phylogenetic analysis in 2006 indicated the two species traditionally assigned to the genus Lagenorhynchus , the hourglass dolphin L. cruciger and Peale's dolphin L. australis are actually phylogenetically nested among the species of Cephalorhynchus, and they suggested that these two species should be transferred to the genus Cephalorhynchus. Some acoustic and morphological data support this arrangement, at least with respect to Peale's dolphin. ^[2] In 2025 those two species were transferred to Cephalorhynchus. ^{[3] [4]}

According to a study in 1971, the Cephalorhynchus species are the only dolphins that do not whistle (no acoustic data are available for the hourglass dolphin). Peale's dolphin also shared with several Cephalorhynchus species the possession of a distinct white "armpit" marking behind the pectoral fin. ^[5]

References

1. Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
2. May-Collado, Laura; Agnarsson, Ingi (2006). "Cytochrome b and Bayesian inference of whale phylogeny" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 38 (2): 344–54. Bibcode:2006MolPE..38..344M. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.019. ISSN   1055-7903. OCLC   441745572. PMID   16325433 . Retrieved 2 February 2013.
3. "List of Marine Mammal Species and Subspecies". Marine Mammal Science Taxonomy Committee. 13 November 2016. Retrieved 2025-07-17.
4. Galatius, Anders; Kinze, Carl; Olsen, Morten; Tougaard, Jakob; Gotzek, Dietrich; McGowen, Michael (April 2025). "Phylogenomic, morphological and acoustic data support a revised taxonomy of the lissodelphinine dolphin subfamily". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 205. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2025.108299.
5. Schevill, W.E.; Watkins, W.A. (15 January 1971). "Pulsed sounds of the porpoise Lagenorhynchus australis". Breviora. 366: 1–10. ISSN   0006-9698. OCLC   80876226.