PBDB Taxon

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Orcinus (killer whale)

Mammalia - Cetacea - Delphinidae

Taxonomy

Orcinus was named by Fitzinger (1860) [Sepkoski's age data: T Mi-u R Sepkoski's reference number: 746]. It is extant. It was considered monophyletic by Geisler et al. (2011).

It was assigned to Delphininae by Weber (1928) and Scheffer and Rice (1963); to Cetacea by Sepkoski (2002); to Orcini by Agnarsson and May-Collado (2008); to Globicephalinae by Vidal (1991) and Aguirre-Fernández et al. (2009); to Orcininae by Kasuya (1973), McKenna and Bell (1997), LeDuc et al. (1999), Fordyce and de Muizon (2001), Buchholtz and Schur (2004), Bianucci (2005) and Perrin et al. (2013); and to Delphinidae by Trouessart (1904), Palmer (1904), Kellogg (1928), Simpson (1945), Ellerman and Morrisson-Scott (1951), Gondar (1966), Pilleri (1987), Pilleri (1988), Heyning and Dahleim (1988), Carroll (1988), Benton (1993), Rice (1998), Mead and Brownell (2005), Fordyce and Roberts (2009), Geisler et al. (2011), Murakami et al. (2014) and Citron et al. (2022).

Species

Orca stenorhyncha, O. citoniensis, O. meyeri, O. orca (syn. Delphinus victorini, Orca minor, Orca magellanica, Orca gladiator, Orca ater, Orca (Ophysia) pacifica, Orca pacifica, O. nanus, Orca latirostris, Delphinus gladiator, Physeter microps, Orca tasmanica, Delphinus duhameli, Orca africana, Delphinus grampus, Orca eschrichtii, O. morzerbruynsus, O. glacialis, Orca antarctica, Orca schlegelii, Orca (Gladiator) latirostris, Orca rectipinna, Orca capensis, Delphinus serra), O. paleorca

Synonyms

Orca (Gladiator) was named by Gray (1870). It is extant.

It was synonymized subjectively with Orcinus by Heyning and Dahleim (1988) and Mead and Brownell (2005).

It was assigned to Orca by Gray (1870) and Palmer (1904).
Orca was named by Gray (1846). It is extant.

It was reranked as Phocaena (Orca) by Owen (1866); it was replaced with Orcinus by Trouessart (1904), Simpson (1945), Hershkovitz (1966), Heyning and Dahleim (1988) and Mead and Brownell (2005).

It was assigned to Delphinina by Gray (1846); to Phocaenina by Gray (1864); to Phocaena by Owen (1866); to Orcadina by Gray (1868); to Orcadae by Gray (1870); to Delphininae by Flower (1867), Gill (1871) and Gill (1872); to Orcinae by Brandt (1874); to Globicipites by Winge (1921); to Delphinidae by Gray (1846), Gray (1850), Gray (1863), Gray (1866), Scammon and Cope (1869), Scott (1873), Lydekker (1887), Ameghino (1889), Cope (1890), Newton (1891), Palmer (1904), Turner (1912) and Zittel (1925); and to Orcini by Fraser and Purves (1960).
Orca (Ophysia) was named by Gray (1868). It is extant.

It was reranked as Ophysia by Gray (1871); it was synonymized subjectively with Orcinus by Hershkovitz (1966), Heyning and Dahleim (1988) and Mead and Brownell (2005).

It was assigned to Orca by Gray (1868); and to Orcadae by Gray (1870) and Gray (1871).

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1846	Orca Gray p. 33
1850	Orca Gray p. 92
1860	Orcinus Fitzinger p. 204
1863	Orca Gray p. 201
1864	Orca Gray p. 244
1866	Orca Gray p. 278
1866	Phocaena (Orca) Owen
1867	Orca Flower p. 115
1868	Orca Gray p. 8
1868	Orca (Ophysia) Gray p. 8
1869	Orca Scammon and Cope p. 21
1870	Orca (Gladiator) Gray p. 71
1870	Ophesia Gray p. 773
1870	Orca Gray p. 773
1871	Orca Gill p. 125
1871	Ophysia Gray p. 93
1872	Orca Gill p. 95
1873	Orca Scott p. 87
1874	Orca Brandt p. 47
1887	Orca Lydekker p. 80
1889	Orca Ameghino p. 886
1890	Orca Cope p. 609
1891	Orca Newton p. 76
1904	Orca (Gladiator) Palmer p. 295
1904	Orca Palmer p. 478
1904	Orcinus Palmer p. 478
1904	Orcinus Trouessart p. 771
1912	Orca Turner p. 109
1921	Orca Winge p. 36
1925	Orca Zittel p. 87
1928	Orcinus Kellogg p. 33 figs. Table 1
1928	Orcinus Weber p. 389
1945	Orcinus Simpson p. 104
1951	Orcinus Ellerman and Morrisson-Scott p. 739
1960	Orca Fraser and Purves p. 112 figs. Figure 26
1963	Orcinus Scheffer and Rice p. 8
1966	Orcinus Gondar p. 142
1973	Orcinus Kasuya p. 61
1987	Orcinus Pilleri p. 109
1988	Orcinus Carroll
1988	Orcinus Heyning and Dahleim p. 1
1988	Orcinus Pilleri p. 24
1991	Orcinus Vidal p. 5
1993	Orcinus Benton p. 762
1997	Orcinus McKenna and Bell p. 384
1998	Orcinus Rice p. 117
1999	Orcinus LeDuc et al. p. 639 figs. Figure 2
2001	Orcinus Fordyce and de Muizon p. 179
2002	Orcinus Sepkoski
2004	Orcinus Buchholtz and Schur p. 384 figs. Fiugre 1
2005	Orcinus Bianucci p. 340
2005	Orcinus Mead and Brownell p. 731
2008	Orcinus Agnarsson and May-Collado p. 981 figs. Fig. 2
2009	Orcinus Aguirre-Fernández et al.
2009	Orcinus Fordyce and Roberts p. 553
2011	Orcinus Geisler et al. p. 6 figs. Table 1
2013	Orcinus Perrin et al. p. 571 figs. Table 1
2014	Orcinus Murakami et al. p. 492 figs. Table 1
2022	Orcinus Citron et al. p. 169

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
—	Osteichthyes	()
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
subclass	Synapsida
—	Therapsida	()
infraorder	Cynodontia	()
—	Mammaliamorpha
—	Mammaliaformes

Rank	Name	Author
class	Mammalia
—	Cladotheria
—	Zatheria
subclass	Tribosphenida	()
subclass	Theria
—	Eutheria	()
—	Placentalia
—	Boreoeutheria
—	Laurasiatheria
—	Scrotifera
—	Euungulata
—	Artiodactylamorpha
—	Artiodactyla	()
—	Whippomorpha
order	Cetacea
—	Pelagiceti
—	Neoceti
suborder	Odontoceti
infraorder	Delphinida
superfamily	Delphinoidea
family	Delphinidae
genus	Orcinus

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. Orcinus Fitzinger 1860 [killer whale]

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†Orcinus citoniensis Capellini 1883

†Orcinus meyeri Brandt 1873

Orcinus orca Linnaeus 1758 [orca]

Invalid names: Delphinus duhameli Lacépède 1804 [synonym], Delphinus gladiator Bonnaterre 1789 [synonym], Delphinus grampus Desmarest 1817 [synonym], Delphinus serra Borowski 1781 [synonym], Delphinus victorini Grill 1858 [synonym], Orca (Gladiator) latirostris Gray 1870 [synonym], Orca (Ophysia) pacifica Gray 1870 [synonym], Orca africana Gray 1871 [synonym], Orca antarctica Fischer 1876 [synonym], Orca ater Scammon and Cope 1869 [synonym], Orca capensis Gray 1846 [synonym], Orca eschrichtii Reinhardt 1866 [synonym], Orca gladiator Bonnaterre 1789 [synonym], Orca latirostris Gray 1870 [synonym], Orca magellanica Burmeister 1866 [synonym], Orca minor Malm 1871 [synonym], Orca pacifica Gray 1870 [synonym], Orca rectipinna Scammon and Cope 1869 [synonym], Orca schlegelii Lilljeborg 1866 [synonym], Orca tasmanica Gray 1871 [synonym], Orcinus glacialis Berzin and Vladimirov 1983 [synonym], Orcinus morzerbruynsus Heintzelman 1981 [synonym], Orcinus nanus Mikhalev and Ivashin 1981 [synonym], Physeter microps Fabricius 1780 [synonym]

†Orcinus paleorca Matsumoto 1937

Invalid names: Gladiator Gray 1870 [synonym], Ophysia Gray 1868 [synonym], Orca Gray 1846 [replaced]

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
J. E. Gray 1870 (Orca (Gladiator))	The beak of the skull tapering and narrow in front, end narrow.