Studies on the Little Toothed Whales in the West Sea Area of Kyusyu―III About Tursiops sp. caught at Arikawa in Goto Is., Nagasaki pref.

• Main Authors: 水江, 一弘, 吉田, 主基
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: Japanese
• Published: 長崎大学水産学部 1961
• Subjects: toothed whales
• Online Access: https://nagasaki-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/8899/files/suisan10_038.pdf

A large number of Tursiops sp. were caught at Arikawa Bay in Goto Is. of Nagasaki pref. In this Tursions sp., the many babies immediatly after the parturition and many females which has large fetus immediatly before the parturition, were included, so it is seemed that this Tursiops sp. is group in the course of the migration of parturition. The body length of the fetus in paturition is presumed about 120 cm. On the body color, the striped dark design in the shape of the anchor was observed at the front of the rear of the head, and in this point it is same characteristic to the Pacific Tursiops sp. About the external proportion of body, in this Tursiops sp. the head part is longer, the portion of the waist and tail is smaller than the northern species of this prefecture, but is similar in these portions to Pacific spp. And the characteristics in this species is that the dorsal fin situates more forward and the breadth of the tail flake is larger than other species. About the skull proportion, the width of the middle snout in maxilla is more narrow and the length of teeth line in maxilla and mandibula is longer and the distance of the end of both temporal is shorter than other Tursiops sp. On the tooth, the distribution of its number is no small, but it has a tendency to much generally. The number of bertebrae was 64, but this value is one animale. About the change of external proportion with the progress of growing, the each values in the head part are decrease and values in the portion of the waist and tail are increase with the progress of growth, it is shown that the degree of the head growth is smaller than the other portions, and the body growth is due to that in the waist and tail mainly. 長崎大学水産学部研究報告, v.10, pp.38-46; 1961 departmental bulletin paper