A List of the Marine Mammals of the World 



By 



DALE W. RICE and VICTOR B. SCHEFFER, Wildlife Biologists 



Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory 

 Seattle, Washington 98115 



ABSTRACT 



Listed are 117 species of Recent marine mammals, including fresh-water 

 species of the predominantly marine groups. The numbers of species are: Order 

 Carnivora (1), Order Pinnipedia (33), Order Sirenia (5), Order Mysticeti (10), 

 and Order Odontoceti (68). The geographical distribution of each species is shown. 

 The systematic status of little-known species is discussed. 



INTRODUCTION 



Listed here are the living and recently ex- 

 tinct marine mammals of the world: the sea 

 otter, pinnipeds, sirenians, and cetaceans. 

 Living fresh-water pinnipeds, sirenians, and 

 cetaceans are included. 



Any attempt to classify marine mammals 

 is difficult because they are poorly known. 

 Some live on the high seas and others on 

 remote oceanic islands or among polar ice 

 fields. Some sirenians and smaller cetaceans 

 live in tropical waters seldom visited by 

 mammalogists. The carcasses of marine 

 mammals are large, greasy, and bloody, 

 and often putrefy before they are brought to 

 the attention of biologists. They are difficult 

 and expensive to collect and to preserve for 

 study. As a result, some kinds are repre- 

 sented in scientific collections by only a few 

 skulls, and their external appearance is poorly 

 known. 



Thus, any list of the marine nnammals, 

 especially of the smaller cetaceans, can be 

 regarded only as provisional. Classification 

 in the present list is carried to the sub- 

 specific level for pinnipeds and sirenians. 

 Cetaceans, in general, are too poorly known 

 for subspecies to be defined, but we have 

 listed the proposed races that appear to be 

 valid. The sea otter is monotypic. 



The arrangement of the pinnipeds follows 

 Scheffer (1958), with some changes, the 

 authorities for which are cited in the text. 

 Evidence is accumulating that seals are de- 

 scended from two stocks that originated 



A revision of an earlier list under the same title 

 (Scheffer and iUce, 1963). 



independently from canoid carnivores 

 (McLaren, 1960). The stocks are now repre- 

 sented by the Otarioidea (Families Otariidae 

 and Odobenidae) and the Phocoidea (Family 

 Phocidae). Edward D. Mitchell, Jr. (Fisheries 

 Research Board of Canada) and Charles A. 

 Repenning (U.S. Geological Survey), among 

 others, are studying the systematic position 

 of the seals in the light of fossil evidence. 



The cetaceans are divided into twoorders-- 

 Odontoceti and Mysticeti- -for reasons stated 

 by Rice (in Anderson and Jones, 1967). The 

 classification at the family level departs 

 from the classification in that book; the divi- 

 sion of the Delphinidae into the three families 

 proposed by Eraser and Purves (1960)-- 

 Delphinidae, Phocaenidae, and Stenidae--is not 

 adopted. We believe that insufficient evidence 

 has been published to support the validity of 

 these taxa, and that much more study is 

 needed before such a change can be accepted. 

 Even if phylogenetically valid, these taxa do 

 not seem to merit more than subfamilial 

 rank when compared with the range of varia- 

 tion in the Physeteridae and Platanistidae. 

 We therefore follow tradition in regarding 

 the living odontocetes as divisible into five 

 families, a tradition most recently endorsed 

 by Hershkovitz (1966). The arrangement of 

 the cetaceans at the generic level follows 

 Rice (in Anderson and Jones, 1967). Classifi- 

 cation at the specific level, often provisional, 

 is explained under each genus. 



The following three generic names, one 

 specific name, and one family name are 

 senior synonyms of names used in this list; 

 according to Article 23b of the International 

 Code for Zoological Nomenclature (Inter- 

 national Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, 



