Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Nameless Dolphin

Here is a topic that has even been discussed on Facebook!

Dolphins are such beautiful creatures, and recently, a new species of the humpback dolphin was discovered off the coast of Australia!  And I was just there over a year ago! I was seeing this species of dolphin and didn't even know it! (Of course I was just happy to see a dolphin while out on the reef)

 
The humpback dolphin gets its name from the bump that is located just below the dorsal fin, the fin that is on a dolphin's back. These magnificent creatures can be seen swimming and jumping in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean. Until now there were three species that were classified as humpback dolphins. One species, the Sousa teuszii, is found in the Atlantic Ocean, the Sousa plumbea is found in the western Indian Ocean, and the Sousa chinensis is found in the East Indian Ocean and West Pacific Ocean. The new species was found in the waters of Australia and is still unnamed.

Scientists realized that there was another species based on skull measurements and DNA sequencing. The specimens used for taking skull measurements came from beached dolphins and those in captivity. The DNA sequencing was done from tissue samples collected from dolphins in the same region. Comparing the DNA sequences of the Australian dolphins to the Alantic, Indian, and Indo-Pacific dolphins, there was enough variance to call it a new species. Nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA was used to make comparisons.

The discovery of this new species proves that there is endless research to be done and there really is no end. Dolphins are an animal well studied, well understood, and widely recgonized, yet there are still new discoveries and the knowledge continues to grow. This opens the door to new research and studies to see how this species came to be and how it differs from those found in other regions. Next time you think there's nothing else you can discover, just keep looking!

Articles (and Picture)
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dolphin-without-name
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029143000.htm

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4 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 8, 2013 at 8:58 PM

    Did you take your own picture of the new species of dolphin when you were there? Would be cool to see if you did. Might I suggest the species name to be "humphrii" haha. Anyway, I wrote my molecular paper on DNA barcoding, and I wonder if the research leading to the discovery of this actually being a different species came from using this formula called the 10x formula, that states if an organism has an average character difference 10 times greater than the species it is being compared to, it is said to be a different species. Scientists are finding many new species using this formula I can imagine.

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    1. UnknownNovember 14, 2013 at 5:15 PM

      That formula could have been used! It sounds like a good place to start as far as comparing species. I did take pictures of dolphins while in Australia, but I guess I'll never know if it is this new species.

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  2. UnknownNovember 11, 2013 at 1:29 PM

    This is pretty cool! I wonder what two species of dolphins created it or if it was a combination of two heterozygous species?

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    1. UnknownNovember 14, 2013 at 5:17 PM

      I was wondering that too! Has this species been around for a while or has it developed over the years through different dolphins mating?

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