REDESCRIPTION OF THE CHINESE WHITE DOLPHIN 
Table 1 Five species classification of the genus Sousa according to 
morphological differences and geographical distribution (Ross et al., 
1994). 
Nominal species Geographical range 


S. chinensis (Osbeck, 1765) 
S. plumbea (Cuvier, 1829) 
S. lentigenosa (Owen, 1866) 
S. teuzii (Kukenthal, 1892) 
S. borneensis (Lydekker, 1901) 
China to Australia 
South Africa to India 
India to Southeast Asia 
West Africa 
Rare form in Borneo, overlapping 
with ‘chinensis’ 
then compared with the range of measurements obtained from other 
dead adult specimens of S. chinensis stranded on Hong Kong beaches. 
29 
RE-DESCRIPTION OF SOUSA CHINENSIS 
(OSBECK, 1765) 
Neotype: ZD 1999.360, sub-adult male, N 022° 20' 00; E 113° 55’ 
30, The Brothers Islands, Hong Kong’s territorial waters, collected 
by staff of the Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of 
Hong Kong. Donated to the Natural History Museum, London, 
under CITES permit APO/EL 3227/99. 
The gently-tapering rostrum of this specimen comprised 60.7% of 
the total skull length and was positioned low near the base of the 
cranium (Fig. la). The upper and lower tooth rows comprised 89% 
and 63%, respectively, of the rostrum and ramus lengths, with 3 1—35 

Fig. 2 The a, foramen magnum; b, atlas and c, axis of the neotype of Sousa chinensis 
