ATLANTIC OCEAN 



Figure l.-The western North Atlantic, from Ut. 35°N-65°N. 



postcranial skeletons, and external characteristics. The 

 discipline which concerns itself with naming an animal and 

 assigning it to its appropriate scientific category is known as 

 taxonomy. An example of the classification of a cetacean 

 species is shown in the following: 



SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE 

 ATLANTIC BOTTLENOSED DOLPHIN 



Kingdom: 



Phylum: 



Subphylum: Vertebrata 



Class: 



Order: 



Suborder: 



Animalia all animals 



Chordata having at some stage a noto- 



chord, the precursor of the 

 backbone 

 animals with backbones- 

 fishes, amphibians, reptiles, 

 birds, and mammals 



Mammalia animals that suckle their 

 young 



Cetacea carnivorous, wholly aquatic 



mammals: whales, including 

 dolphins and porpoises 



Odontoceti toothed whales as distinguish- 

 ed from Mysticeti, the 

 baleen whales 



Family: Delphinidae dolphins 



Genus: Tursiops bottlenosed dolphins 



Species: truncatus Atlantic bottlenosed dolphin 



Modern taxonomy had its origin with the Swedish 

 naturalist Linnaeus, whose tenth edition of the Systema 

 Naturae in 1758 forms the official starting point. Following 

 Linnaeus, modern scientific names consist of two words, a 

 generic name, which has an initial capital, and a species name, 

 which rarely does, occasionally in botany (some species 

 names deriving from a person's name are capitalized). Both 

 names are usually of Latin origin (sometimes Greek) and are 

 italicized or underlined. These scientific names are of 

 particular importance because, although common names of 

 species often are different in different countries or even in 

 different regions of the same country, the scientific name 

 remains the same. For example, the right whale is uni- 

 versally known as Eubalaerva glacialis though its common 

 names include black right whale, nordcaper, sletbag, Biscay 

 whale, and Biscayan right whale. 



Although classification of many species is still in a state of 

 flux, the classification of western North Atlantic cetaceans 

 followed in this guide is as follows: 



