关键词: 中国海兽学

Abstract: The forerunner of the zoology in China, Ping Chi, who published 5 papers on odontocetes in the year 1924-1927, is the first Chinese scientist engaged in the study of marine mammals.The development of the marine mammalogical science in China was very slow in a period of some 20 years after 1927.Obvious progresses have been made in marine mammalogy since the founding of the People's Republic of China in the fall of 1949.129 papers have been published on marine mammals from the rivers, lakes and coastal waters of the mainland and Taiwan Province,including a few papers on marine mammals from other countries written by Chinese zoologists.As shown in Table l,the literature of marine mammalogy in China published in the past thirty-five years can be referred to.Of the disciplines, about 71% of the total deal with odontocetes and only 10% with pinnipeds and sirenians.21 species of the odontocetes recorded from the Chinese waters are listed in Table 2. In the studies on mystacocetes, most of the data published are taken from specimens of Balaenoptera acutorostrata. Among the papers on odontocetes, about 1/3 deal with Lipotes vexillifer. The establishment of the family Lipotidae,the cladistic study of the phylogeny of the superfamily Platanistoidea, the finding of the Tertiary Plata-nistoid fossil and the morphological,biochemical, ecological and conservation studies of Lipotes are worthy of mentioning.Despite the fact that a certain amount of work had been done in the past,the study of the marine mammalogy in China may still be considered as the early state of its development. Our work in the past three decades is,for the most part,in the nature of accumulation of materials and basic data.In view of the worldwide progress in the science,the author puts forward suggestions to strengthen the studies of the ecology and behavior, and of the conservation of the endangered species.

Key words: Marine mammalogy in China