关键词: 宽吻海豚属, 分类学, 中国近海

Abstract: Varying combinations of skeletal, external and photographic data were available for 33 specimens of Tursiops from Chinese waters. The skulls indicating distal fusion of premaxillaries and maxillaries were used for study. of which 14 are referred to Tursiops truncatus and 7 are identified as T.aduncus.In color pattern and external morphometrics(Table 1), T. aduncus differs from T. truncatus in having: longitudinal elongated dark spots on ventral surface between flippers and anus;shorter total body length; relatively longer beak and larger flippers. Recorded CBL for T.aduncus is less than 500mm and its mean is 59.6mm shorter than tho- se of T.truncatws(Table 2).The skull of the former can also be distinguished from the latter by morphological characters.The total number of vertebrae is 60-61 in T. aduncus and 64-67 in T. truncotus (Table 3). In T.aduncus. the sixth cervical vertebrae mostly have no lower transverse process; the length of centrum of the seventh cervical vertebra is longer than that of the sixth, its costal facet resembles or is larger than that of the first thoracic vertebra; the capitulum of rib 1 is apparently larger than that of rib 2; the capitulum of the last two-headed rib is rudimentary and has lost the connection with the centrum of thoracic vertebra.In T.truncatus, the sixth cervical vertebrae mostly have lower transverse process; the length of centrum of the seventh cervical vertebra is similar to that of the sixth, its costal facet is vestigial or apparently smaller than that of the first thoracic vertebra; the capitulum of rib 1 resembles that of rib 2; the capitulum of the last two-headed rib is normally developed and articulated with the centrum of thoracic vertebra.The characters of our specimens from the South China Sea are almost identical with those of T.aduncus from the South African and Pakistan waters. Comparisons of characters of the specimens of Tursiops from the Yellow Sea and East China Sea with those from the north east Pacific and from the South African and British waters (Table 4,5) indicate that the former should be referred to T.truncatus.

Key words: Bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops, Taxo-nomy, Chinese waters