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The Australian snubfin dolphin (''Orcaella heinsohnri'') is a dolphin found off the northern coasts of Australia. It closely resembles the Irrawaddy dolphin (of the same genus, ''Orcaella'') and was not described as a separate species until 2005. The Australian snubfin has three, while the Irrawaddy dolphin only has two colours on its skin. The skull and the fins also show minor differences between the two species. ==Taxonomy== The taxonomic specific name, ''heinsohni'', was chosen in honor of George Heinsohn, an Australian biologist who worked at James Cook University, "for his pioneering work on northeast Australian odontocetes, including the collection and initial analysis of ''Orcaella heinsohni'' specimens which form the basis for much of our knowledge of the new species".〔Beasley, Robertson & Arnold 2005〕 New species of large mammals are quite rarely described nowadays, and those that are usually are from remote areas — such as the saola - or are otherwise rarely encountered, see for example Perrin's beaked whale, or the spade-toothed whale, which is only known from two complete specimens and a few bones cast ashore. In fact, the Australian snubfin was the first new dolphin species to be described in 56 years, but was followed, in 2011, by the discovery and description of the Burrunan dolphin (''T. australis''), also from the Australian continent. The Australian snubfin dolphin is unusual among recently described mammals in that a population is accessible for scientific study. Nonetheless, the existence of snubfin dolphins in the waters of northern Australia had only become known in 1948, when a skull was found at Melville Bay (Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory). This individual apparently had been caught and eaten by aboriginals. However, the discovery remained unnoted until discussed by Johnson (1964), and soon thereafter a Dutch skipper had his observations of the then-unrecognized species published.〔Mörzer Bruyns 1966〕 Two scientists, Isabel Beasley of James Cook University and Peter Arnold of Museum of Tropical Queensland, took DNA samples from the population of dolphins off the coast of Townsville, Queensland, and sent them to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. The results showed George Heinsohn was correct in his hypothesis 〔Arnold and Heinsohn 1996〕 that the Townsville population was a new species. The holotype QM JM4721 (JUCU MM61) is the skull and some other bones of an adult male found drowned in a shark net at Horseshoe Bay, Queensland, on 21 April 1972. It was about 11 years old at the time of its death.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Australian snubfin dolphin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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