Tursiops

The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus Tursiops. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bottlenose dolphin, the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, and Tamanend's 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 the truncated teeth.

Tursiops

NASA · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DelphininaePBDB
Diet
piscivore, carnivorePBDB, for Delphinidae
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 54 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 12 of 54 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 12 of 54 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 29 of 54 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.9–4.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.6–4.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.4–4.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.1–3.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.9–3.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 36 occurrences3.6 Mya11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

54 occurrences of Tursiops on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

54 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

10 formations

Yorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WTalbot — 38.07°N, 76.36°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WWhaler's Bluff — 38.36°S, 141.60°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WKattendijk — 51.17°N, 4.85°ESabbie d'Asti — 44.96°N, 8.06°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.93°N, 1.30°EValldunga — 44.91°N, 8.12°EIchijiku — 35.27°N, 139.98°E

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The named rock units Tursiops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 43 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

756 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 51 sites for Tursiops, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

41 references

Each of the 54 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 29 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Tursiops

Credit
NASA
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Tursiops aduncus · SAMA:Mammalogy:M15598

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDelphininae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gervais 1855