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Sousa chinensis (Chinese white dolphin)

Mammalia - Cetacea - Delphinidae

Taxonomy
Delphinus chinensis was named by Osbeck (1765) [No type specimen. Original description based on live animals (Hershkovitz, 1966).]. It is extant. Its type specimen is none designated (Hershkovitz, 1966). Its type locality is Bahia Rio de Janeiro, which is in a Holocene coastal horizon in Brazil.

It was replaced with Delphinus sinensis by Desmarest (1822); it was recombined as Steno chinensis by Gray (1871); it was recombined as Sotalia chinensis by Hershkovitz (1961), Scheffer and Rice (1963) and Hershkovitz (1966); it was recombined as Sousa chinensis by Lal Mohan (1988), Rice (1998), Jefferson and Karczmarski (2001), Jefferson and Van Waerebeek (2004), Mead and Brownell (2005), Agnarsson and May-Collado (2008), Perrin et al. (2013), Jefferson and Rosenbaum (2014) and Jefferson (2021).

Synonyms
Synonymy list
YearName and author
1765Delphinus chinensis Osbeck
1822Delphinus sinensis Desmarest p. 514
1870Sotalia sinensis Flower p. 151
1871Steno chinensis Gray p. 65
1883Sotalia sinensis Lydekker p. 513
1898Sotalia sinensis Trouessart p. 1026
1901Sotalia borneensis Lydekker p. 88 figs. Plate 8, Fig. 11
1904Sotalia borneensis Trouessart p. 763
1904Sotalia sinensis Trouessart p. 763
1934Sousa lentiginosa Iredale and Troughton p. 68
1960Sousa borneensis Fraser and Purves p. 7
1961Sotalia chinensis Hershkovitz p. 553
1963Sotalia borneensis Scheffer and Rice p. 7
1963Sotalia chinensis Scheffer and Rice p. 7
1966Sotalia chinensis Hershkovitz p. 22
1966Sotalia borneensis Hershkovitz p. 23
1988Sousa chinensis Lal Mohan p. 94
1998Sousa chinensis Rice p. 103
1999Sousa huangi Wang Peilie
2001Sousa chinensis Jefferson and Karczmarski p. 1
2004Sousa chinensis Jefferson and Van Waerebeek p. 16
2005Sousa chinensis Mead and Brownell p. 732
2008Sousa chinensis Agnarsson and May-Collado p. 981 figs. FIg. 2
2012Delphinus chinensis Hassanin et al. p. 43 figs. Fig. 1
2013Sousa chinensis Perrin et al. p. 571 figs. Table 1
2014Sousa chinensis Jefferson and Rosenbaum
2021Sousa chinensis Jefferson p. 24

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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)
Theriiformes()
RankNameAuthor
Trechnotheria
Cladotheria
Zatheria
subclassTribosphenida()
subclassTheria
Eutheria()
Placentalia
Boreoeutheria
Laurasiatheria
Scrotifera
Euungulata
Artiodactylamorpha
Artiodactyla()
Whippomorpha
orderCetacea
Pelagiceti
Neoceti
suborderOdontoceti
infraorderDelphinida
superfamilyDelphinoidea
familyDelphinidae
subfamilyDelphininae
genusSousaGray 1866
specieschinensis(Osbeck 1765)

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.

Sousa chinensis Osbeck 1765 [Chinese white dolphin]
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Invalid names: Delphinus sinensis Desmarest 1822 [synonym], Sotalia borneensis Lydekker 1901 [synonym], Sousa huangi Wang Peilie 1999 [synonym], Sousa lentiginosa Iredale and Troughton 1934 [synonym]
Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
T. A. Jefferson and H. C. Rosenbaum 2014Sousa chinensis reaches a known maximum total length of 270 cm (Fig. 5). The species is characterized by the absence of a dorsal hump, and a low, wide- based (ranging from 15%–21% of body length; Zhou et al. 1980; TAJ, unpub- lished), triangular to slightly-falcate dorsal fin (Fig. 12; Jefferson and Karcmarski 2001). There are 50–53 total vertebrae, and the typical vertebral formula is C7, Th12–14, L9–11, Ca21–24. The rostum is relatively short (to 339 mm). The length/breadth ratio of the cranium is 2.2–2.6. Tooth counts are between those of other Sousa species (32–38 per tooth row). Adults are mostly white, but with some dark spotting and/or gray patches in some populations (there is no cape pattern). There are no shared mtDNA haplotypes with other species, and three diagnostic mtDNA characters that distinguish Sousa plumbea from other Sousa species. A sin- gle nuDNA character diagnoses S. chinensis from all other Sousa (Table 2).