A new species of humpback dolphins were spotted in northern Australia.
The researchers set out to discover the "number of distinct species in the family of humpback dolphins." They looked at the dolphins' genetic data and physical features, and found the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin family could be split into three different species; one of which had never been described before, a Wildlife Conservation Society news release reported.
The team got information from beached dolphins and museum specimens to make their finding. They looked at 180 skulls and 235 tissue samples from animals spanning from eastern Atlantic to the western Pacific Oceans.
"Based on the findings of our combined morphological and genetic analyses, we can suggest that the humpback dolphin genus includes at least four member species," Doctor Martin Mendez, Assistant Director of WCS's Latin America and the Caribbean Program and lead author of the study, said. "This discovery helps our understanding of the evolutionary history of this group and informs conservation policies to help safeguard each of the species."
The researchers suggest the dolphins should be grouped into four categories: The Atlantic humpback dolphin (Sousa teuszii), which lives in the eastern Atlantic off West Africa; the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea), which calls the Indian Ocean home; another Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis), that hails from the Indian and western Pacific Oceans; and the new Australian Sousa species which has not yet been given a name.
"New information about distinct species across the entire range of humpback dolphins will increase the number of recognized species, and provides the needed scientific evidence for management decisions aimed at protecting their unique genetic diversity and associated important habitats," Doctor Howard Rosenbaum, Director of WCS's Ocean Giants Program and senior author on the paper, said.
The researchers are excited to bring more "taxonomic clarity" to the dolphins, which have been poorly studied in the past.
