Clymene Dolphin - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

From its description by John Edward Gray in 1850 until a re-assessment in 1981, the Clymene dolphin was regarded as subspecies of the Spinner dolphin. In 1981, Perrin et al. asserted the Clymene's existence as separate species. Up until this time, because Clymenes are relatively remote and regarded as "the same" as more accessible Spinners they were never heavily studied. Mead and Perrin went some way to redress this balance but the Clymene dolphin is still one of the least understood of all cetaceans.