Common Bottlenose Dolphin Ecotypes of the Western North Atlantic Revisited
March 15, 2024
Research proposing the recognition of a distinct species of coastal bottlenose dolphin.
In the western North Atlantic, two ecotypes (coastal and offshore) of common bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, exhibit some external morphological differences, and previous genetic findings suggested that they could be different species. However, their taxonomy remains unsettled. Based on the work presented within, we propose that the coastal ecotype is recognized as a distinct species, resurrecting the name Tursiops erebennus.
Costa, A. P. B., W. Mcfee, L. A. Wilcox, F. I. Archer, and P. E. Rosel. 2022. The common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) ecotypes of the western North Atlantic revisited: an integrative taxonomic investigation supports the presence of distinct species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlac025, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac025.