The common dolphin is the name given to two species (and possibly a third) of dolphin making up the genus Delphinus.
Prior to the mid-1990s, most taxonomists only recognised one species in this genus, the common dolphin Delphinus delphis. Modern cetologists usually recognise two species - the Short-beaked common dolphin, which retains the systematic name Delphinus delphis, and the long-beaked common dolphin Delphinus capensis. Some studies suggest that a third species, the Arabian common dolphin (D. tropicalis), can be characterized by an extremely long and thin beak and found in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
The common dolphin is not the dolphin of popular imagination despite its name; that distinction belongs to the bottlenose dolphin due to its widespread use in marine parks and its appearance in the television series Flipper. However, this dolphin was the most frequently represented in the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome.
Read more about Common Dolphin: Physical Characteristics, Differentiating Species, Natural History
Famous quotes containing the word common:
“This is really the common mentality of prisoners: they read with great attention all the articles that deal with illnesses and send away for treatises and “be your own doctor” or “emergency treatments” and end up by discovering that they have at least 300 or 400 illnesses, whose symptoms they are experiencing.”
—Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937)