Urkudelphis | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Infraorder: | Cetacea |
Genus: | † Urkudelphis Tanaka et al. 2017 |
Species: | †U. chawpipacha |
Binomial name | |
†Urkudelphis chawpipacha Tanaka et al. 2017 | |
Urkudelphis is an extinct genus of cetacean. [1] The type species, Urkudelphis chawpipacha, was described in 2017 based on fossils found in the Dos Bocas Formation of Ecuador. [2] It was a type of river dolphin.
The Amazon river dolphin, also known as the boto, bufeo or pink river dolphin, is a species of toothed whale which is native to and is exclusively of South America classified in the family Iniidae. Three subspecies are currently recognized: I. g. geoffrensis, I. g. boliviensis and I. g. humboldtiana while position of Araguaian river dolphin within the clade is still unclear. The three subspecies are distributed in the Amazon basin, the upper Madeira River in Bolivia, and the Orinoco basin, respectively.
The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin is a species of humpback dolphin inhabiting coastal waters of the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans. This species is often referred to as the Chinese white dolphin in mainland China, Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore as a common name. Some biologists regard the Indo-Pacific dolphin as a subspecies of the Indian Ocean humpback dolphin which ranges from East Africa to India. However, DNA testing studies have shown that the two are distinct species. A new species, the Australian humpback dolphin, was split off from S. chinensis and recognized as a distinct species in 2014. Nevertheless, there are still several unresolved issues in differentiation of the Indian Ocean-type and Indo-Pacific-type humpback dolphins.
Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus Tursiops. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin. Others, like the Burrunan dolphin, may be alternately considered their own species or be subspecies of T. aduncus. Bottlenose dolphins inhabit warm and temperate seas worldwide, being found everywhere except for the Arctic and Antarctic Circle regions. Their name derives from the Latin tursio (dolphin) and truncatus for their characteristic truncated teeth.
The common dolphin is the most abundant cetacean in the world, with a global population of about six million. Despite this fact and its vernacular name, the common dolphin is not thought of as the archetypal dolphin, with that distinction belonging to the bottlenose dolphin due to its popular appearances in aquaria and the media. However, the common dolphin is often depicted in Ancient Greek and Roman art and culture, most notably in a mural painted by the Greek Minoan civilization.
The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin is a species of bottlenose dolphin. This dolphin grows to 2.6 m (8.5 ft) long, and weighs up to 230 kg (510 lb). It lives in the waters around India, northern Australia, South China, the Red Sea, and the eastern coast of Africa. Its back is dark grey and its belly is lighter grey or nearly white with grey spots.
The common bottlenose dolphin or Atlantic bottlenose dolphin is a wide-ranging marine mammal of the family Delphinidae. The common bottlenose dolphin is a very familiar dolphin due to the wide exposure it gets in captivity in marine parks and dolphinariums, and in movies and television programs. It is the largest species of the beaked dolphins. It inhabits temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world, and is absent only from polar waters. While formerly known simply as the bottlenose dolphin, this term is now applied to the genus Tursiops as a whole. As considerable genetic variation has been described within this species, even between neighboring populations, many experts think additional species may be recognized.
The Clymene dolphin, in older texts known as the short-snouted spinner dolphin, is a dolphin endemic to the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only confirmed case of hybrid speciation in marine mammals, descending from the spinner dolphin and the striped dolphin.
The Pacific white-sided dolphin, also known as the hookfin porpoise, is an active dolphin found in the cool or temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean.
The evolution of cetaceans is thought to have begun in the Indian subcontinent from even-toed ungulates 50 million years ago (mya) and to have proceeded over a period of at least 15 million years. Cetaceans are fully aquatic marine mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla and branched off from other artiodactyls around 50 mya. Cetaceans are thought to have evolved during the Eocene, the second epoch of the present-extending Cenozoic Era. Molecular and morphological analyses suggest Cetacea share a relatively recent closest common ancestor with hippopotami and that they are sister groups. Being mammals, they surface to breathe air; they have 5 finger bones (even-toed) in their fins; they nurse their young; and, despite their fully aquatic life style, they retain many skeletal features from their terrestrial ancestors. Research conducted in the late 1970s in Pakistan revealed several stages in the transition of cetaceans from land to sea.
Prosqualodon is an extinct genus of Early to Middle Miocene cetacean from Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Venezuela.
Boto is a Portuguese name given to several types of dolphins and river dolphins native to the Amazon and the Orinoco River tributaries. A few botos exist exclusively in fresh water, and these are often considered primitive dolphins.
The Deseadan age is a period of geologic time within the Oligocene epoch of the Paleogene to the Early Miocene epoch of the Neogene, used more specifically within the SALMA classification of South America. It follows the Tinguirirican and precedes the Colhuehuapian age.
The Burrunan dolphin is a species of bottlenose dolphin found in parts of Victoria, Australia first described in 2011. Its exact taxonomy is debated: numerous studies support it as being a separate species within the genus Tursiops and occupying a basal position within the genus, with limited phylogenetic studies using different methodologies indicate that it is a subspecies of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin. The Burrunan dolphin is not currently recognized as a species by the Society for Marine Mammalogy or American Society of Mammalogists, which cites problematic methodology in the original study proposing species status and recommends further research. however recent the studies listed supporting the species, have not been mentioned as being considered in recent reviews of the species by the Committee.
The Araguaian river dolphin or Araguaian boto is a South American river dolphin population native to the Araguaia–Tocantins basin of Brazil.
Otekaikea is an extinct genus of toothed whale closely related to Waipatia. It is known from the late Oligocene (Chattian) of New Zealand.
Notocetus is an extinct genus of river dolphin belonging to Squalodelphinidae. Known specimens have been found in Early Miocene marine deposits from Argentina, Italy and Peru.
Brujadelphis is an extinct genus of river dolphin-like cetaceans of uncertain family placement from the Late Miocene epoch (Serravallian) of present-day Peru. The type species is Brujadelphis ankylorostris, recovered from the Pisco Formation.
Globicephalinae is a subfamily of oceanic dolphins that includes the pilot whales, the pygmy killer whale, the rough-toothed dolphin, the false killer whale, the melon-headed whale, Risso's dolphin, and the snubfin dolphins.
The Dos Bocas Formation is a Chattian, about 26 to 24 Ma, geologic formation of the Progreso Basin in southwestern Ecuador.