Orcinus rectipinnus

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Main Authors: Morin, Phillip A., McCarthy, Morgan L., Fung, Charissa W., Durban, John W., Parsons, Kim M., Perrin, William F., Taylor, Barbara L., Jefferson, Thomas A., Archer, Frederick I.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2024
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Mammalia; Cetacea; Delphinidae; Orcinus; Orcinus rectipinnus; Killer Whale; Orca; Killer whale
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11029304; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/03D206590542C64032C84AD6A667BA65

Orcinus rectipinnus (Cope in Scammon, 1869) Etymology In Latin, recti means right or upright, and pinna means fin, feather or wing, most likely referring to the tall, erect dorsal fin of males. Synonymy Orca rectipinna Cope in Scammon, 1869: 22; original designation. Common name We propose continued use of the common name, ‘Bigg’s killer whale’, for this species, to honour Dr. Michael A. Bigg (1939–1990), who pioneered the study of North Pacific killer whales in the 1970s. This ecotype was formerly known as the ‘transient killer whale’. Type specimen USNM 594671 No type specimen is extant from the original description (Cope in Scammon [125]), so we have designated a neotype. The neotype is the skull of a physically mature male (total length 731 cm, CBL of cranium 1124 mm) in the U.S. National Museum of Natural History Marine Mammal Collection, deposited under museum number USNM 594671. The skull was previously in the NOAA National Marine Mammal Laboratory collection as NMML 0082. It is illustrated in figure 7 a . mtDNA control region haplotype (160 bp) ‘T’ (SWFSC ID 39064 in 142]) unambiguously identifies this specimen as a Bigg’s killer whale. Morphological analysis of this specimen was included in Fung [103]. Detailed measurements of the type specimen are in electronic supplementary material, table S2. Type locality The neotype was collected by J.E. Eckberg on 22 September 1966, near San Francisco, CA, USA. Diagnosis Bigg’s killer whales differ from residents in growing to somewhat larger sizes, and having a widerbased, more triangular dorsal fin that is more pointed at the tip. The dorsal fin also tends to be less falcate (even in females). The saddle patch behind the dorsal fin extends further forward than it does in residents, usually to well past the mid-point of the dorsal fin base, and may appear larger compared to that of residents [40,79]. Virtually all saddle patches are closed (with no significant invasion of black), and many are rounded, with their forward extensions not ending in a point. These ...