Physical Description
Hector’s dolphin is the smallest of the delphinids. Mature adults have a total length of 1.2-1.6 m (3.9-5.25 ft) and weigh 40–60 kg. The species is sexually dimorphic, with females being slightly longer and heavier than males. The body shape is stocky, with no discernible beak. The most distinctive feature is the rounded dorsal fin, with a convex trailing edge and undercut rear margin.
The overall appearance is pale grey but closer inspection reveals a complex and elegant combination of colours. The back and sides are predominantly light grey, while the dorsal fin, flippers and flukes are black. The eyes are surrounded by a black mask, which extends forward to the tip of the rostrum and back to the base of the flipper. A subtly shaded, crescent shaped black band crosses the head just behind the blowhole. The throat and belly are creamy white, separated by dark grey bands meeting between the flippers. A white stripe extends from the belly onto each flank below the dorsal fin.
At birth, Hector’s dolphin calves have a total length of 60–80 cm and weigh 8–10 kg. Their coloration is the same as adults, although the grey has a darker hue. Four to six vertical pale stripes, caused by fetal folds affecting the pigmentation, are present on the calf’s body until an age of about 6 months.
Read more about this topic: Hector's Dolphin
Famous quotes containing the words physical and/or description:
“... life is moral responsibility. Life is several other things, we do not deny. It is beauty, it is joy, it is tragedy, it is comedy, it is psychical and physical pleasure, it is the interplay of a thousand rude or delicate motions and emotions, it is the grimmest and the merriest motley of phantasmagoria that could appeal to the gravest or the maddest brush ever put to palette; but it is steadily and sturdily and always moral responsibility.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)