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Lagenorhynchus acutus

Mammalia - Cetacea - Delphinidae

Taxonomy
Delphinus (Grampus) acutus was named by Gray (1828) [Type locality unknown (Hershkovitz, 1866).]. It is extant. Its type specimen is Leiden Zoological Musuem?, a skull.

It was recombined as Leucopleurus acutus by LeDuc et al. (1999), Geisler et al. (2011), Perrin et al. (2013) and Vollmer et al. (2019); it was recombined as Lagenorhynchus acutus by Gray (1846), Gray (1850), Gray (1864), Gray (1866), Gray (1866), Trouessart (1904), Turner (1912), Fraser and Purves (1960), Scheffer and Rice (1963), Hershkovitz (1966), Rice (1998), Mead and Brownell (2005) and Jefferson (2021).

Synonyms
Synonymy list
YearName and author
1828Delphinus (Grampus) acutus Gray
1841Delphinus eschrichtii Schlegel
1843Delphinus leucopleurus Rasch
1846Lagenorhynchus leucopleurus Gray p. 34
1846Lagenorhynchus acutus Gray p. 36
1847Delphinus leucopleurus Nilsson p. 598
1850Lagenorhynchus leucopleurus Gray p. 97
1850Lagenorhynchus acutus Gray p. 101
1864Lagenorhynchus leucopleurus Gray p. 238
1864Lagenorhynchus acutus Gray p. 239
1866Lagenorhynchus acutus Gray p. 216
1866Lagenorhynchus leucopleurus Gray p. 216
1866Lagenorhynchus acutus Gray p. 270
1866Lagenorhynchus leucopleurus Gray p. 273
1868Leucopleurus arcticus Gray p. 7
1876Lagenorhynchus gubernator Cope
1876Lagenorhynchus perspicillatus Cope
1904Lagenorhynchus acutus Trouessart p. 767
1912Lagenorhynchus acutus Turner p. 128
1960Lagenorhynchus acutus Fraser and Purves p. 112 figs. Figure 26
1963Lagenorhynchus acutus Scheffer and Rice p. 6
1966Lagenorhynchus acutus Hershkovitz p. 60
1998Lagenorhynchus acutus Rice p. 113
1999Leucopleurus acutus LeDuc et al. p. 639 figs. Figure 2
2005Lagenorhynchus acutus Mead and Brownell p. 729
2011Leucopleurus acutus Geisler et al. p. 6 figs. Table 1
2013Leucopleurus acutus Perrin et al. p. 571 figs. Table 1
2019Leucopleurus acutus Vollmer et al.
2021Lagenorhynchus acutus Jefferson p. 45

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RankNameAuthor
kingdomAnimalia()
Bilateria
EubilateriaAx 1987
Deuterostomia
phylumChordataHaeckel 1874
subphylumVertebrata
superclassGnathostomata
Osteichthyes()
subclassSarcopterygii()
subclassDipnotetrapodomorpha(Nelson 2006)
subclassTetrapodomorpha()
Tetrapoda
Reptiliomorpha
Anthracosauria
subclassAmphibiosauriaKuhn 1967
Cotylosauria()
Amniota
subclassSynapsida
Therapsida()
infraorderCynodontia()
Mammaliamorpha
Mammaliaformes
classMammalia
Theriamorpha(Rowe 1993)
RankNameAuthor
Theriiformes()
Trechnotheria
Cladotheria
Zatheria
subclassTribosphenida()
subclassTheria
Eutheria()
Placentalia
Boreoeutheria
Laurasiatheria
Scrotifera
Euungulata
Artiodactylamorpha
Artiodactyla()
Whippomorpha
orderCetacea
Pelagiceti
Neoceti
suborderOdontoceti
infraorderDelphinida
superfamilyDelphinoidea
familyDelphinidae
genusLagenorhynchus
speciesacutus(Gray 1828)

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.

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Invalid names: Delphinus eschrichtii Schlegel 1841 [synonym], Delphinus leucopleurus Rasch 1843 [synonym], Lagenorhynchus gubernator Cope 1876 [synonym], Lagenorhynchus perspicillatus Cope 1876 [synonym], Leucopleurus arcticus Gray 1868 [synonym]
Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
N. L. Vollmer et al. 2019Leucopleurus acutus partially overlaps in distribution with L. albirostris across the North Atlantic and can be differentiated based on the presence of a sharply defined color pattern, in part consisting of a dark gray to black upper jaw and entire dorsal surface, a white lateral patch starting below the dorsal fin and extending posteriorly, a white belly and lower jaw, black flippers, and a yellow or tan blaze along the flank. From a lat- eral view, the tail stock abruptly tapers prior to the flukes. Compared to L. albirostris, L. acutus has a longer and narrower skull (Reeves et al. 1999b). Additionally, L. acutus can be distinguished from all Sagmatias species based on having the largest lachrymal length and greatest preorbi- tal width (Miyazaki and Shikano 1997b).
Molecular evidence based on both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA data supports that L. acutus is differentiated from Lagenorhynchus albirostris and all species of Sagmatias, Cephalorhynchus, and Lissodel- phis with high statistical support based on phylogenetic bootstrap and PP values (Fig. 2, 3; Table 4). These studies reveal that L. acutus has no close genetic affinity to any other species, supporting the monotypic sta- tus of this genus.