The

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Sotalia'' is considered to have two member

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

with the classification of ''

Sotalia guianensis The Guiana dolphin (''Sotalia guianensis''), also known as the estuarine dolphin or costero, is a dolphin found in the coastal and estuary waters to the north and east of South America, and east of Central America. It is a member of the oceanic ...

'' as a distinct species from ''

Sotalia fluviatilis The tucuxi (''Sotalia fluviatilis''), alternatively known in Peru ''bufeo gris'' or ''bufeo negro'', is a species of freshwater dolphin found in the rivers of the Amazon basin. The word ''tucuxi'' is derived from the Tupi language word ''tuchuc ...

'' in 2007. This was a result of recent morphometric analyses, as well as

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

analysis.Caballero S, Trujillo F, Vianna JA, Barrios-Garrido H, Montiel MG, Beltran-Pedreros S, Marmontel M, Santos MC, Rossi-Santos M, Santos FR, Baker CS (2007) Taxonomic status of the genus Sotalia: species level ranking for 'tucuxi' (Sotalia fluviatilis) and 'costero' (Sotalia guianensis) dolphins. Mar Mamm Sci 23: 358-386. Members of this genus are found in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

coasts of Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

as well as in the Amazon River and most of its

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

Member species

* ''

'' (Gervais & Deville, 1853), Tucuxi * ''

'' (van Bénéden, 1864), Costero or Guiana dolphin

References

External links

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sotalia (Genus) Oceanic dolphins Cetacean genera Taxa named by John Edward Gray

Member species

References

Further reading

External links