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
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“Thy fate is the common fate of all;
Into each life some rain must fall.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)