A List of the Marine Mammals of the World 1 



DALE W. RICE 2 



ABSTRACT 



Listed are the 116 species of Recent marine mammals, including freshwater species of the 

 predominantly marine groups. The number of species are: Order Carnivora, 36 (polar bear, sea otter, 

 and 34 pinnipeds); Order Sirenia, 5; Order Mysticeti, 10; and Order Odontoceti, 65. The geographic 

 distribution of each species is indicated. 



INTRODUCTION 



Listed here are the living and recently extinct marine 

 mammals of the world: the sea otter, polar bear, pin- 

 nipeds, sirenians, and cetaceans. Living freshwater pin- 

 nipeds, sirenians, and cetaceans are included. 



Attempts to classify marine mammals are 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, bloody, 

 and often putrefied before they are brought to the atten- 

 tion of biologists. They are difficult and expensive to col- 

 lect and to preserve for study. As a result, some kinds are 

 represented in scientific collections by only a few skulls 

 and their external appearance is poorly known. Thus, 

 any list of the marine mammals, especially of the smaller 

 cetaceans, can be regarded only as provisional. 



The seals have usually been separated from the ter- 

 restrial carnivores as Order (or Suborder) Pinnipedia. It 

 is now clear, however, that the pinnipeds had a common 

 origin with the weasel, racoon, dog, and bear families, 

 and together they constitute one of the two main sub- 

 divisions of living carnivores (Mitchell and Tedford 

 1973). 



The cetaceans have usually been regarded as com- 

 prising a single order, but their origins are obscure, and it 

 is questionable whether they are monophyletic. The 

 Odontoceti (toothed whales) and the Mysticeti (baleen 

 whales) have been separate since at least the late 

 Eocene, and all authors have recognized them as valid 

 taxa at either the subordinal or ordinal level. The dif- 

 ferences between the two groups are as great as those 

 between some of the universally recognized orders of 

 mammals (Rice, in Anderson and Jones 1967). Therefore 

 I follow Kleinenberg (1958) and some other authors in 

 ranking them as separate orders. 



In the Order Odontoceti, the species of the genera 

 Platanista, Sousa, Sotalia, and Tursiops herein recog- 



'A revision of two earlier lists under the same title (Scheffer and Rice 

 1963; Rice and Scheffer 1968). 



'Marine Mammal Division Northwest Fisheries Center, National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Seattle, WA 98115. 



nized as valid have been changed to conform to the "List 

 of Smaller Cetaceans Recognized," agreed upon at the 

 special meeting on smaller cetaceans held by the Scien- 

 tific Committee of the International Whaling Commis- 

 sion (1975). The present list now agrees with the IWC 

 Scientific Committee's list. It appears that the specific 

 classification of the Odontoceti is approaching a consen- 

 sus. Future studies may indicate that certain closely 

 related allopatric forms now listed as separate species 

 should be regarded as conspecific; such cases are noted in 

 the text. Recent studies on some species of small 

 cetaceans (e.g., Stenella longirostris and S. attenuata) 

 have revealed considerable geographic variation. Most 

 species of cetaceans are still too poorly known for sub- 

 species to be defined, but I have listed the proposed sub- 

 species that appear to be valid. 



In the few cases where the nomenclature or classifica- 

 tion in the present list differs from that in the working 

 list compiled by the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission 

 (1976), the reasons are explained in the text or in the 

 references cited therein. 



The following names are senior synonyms of names 

 used in this list; according to Article 23b of the Inter- 

 national Code for Zoological Nomenclature (Inter- 

 national Trust for Zoological Nomenclature 1964), these 

 names are nomina oblita and cannot replace the names 

 herein employed: 



Stenorhinchus E. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and F. Cu- 



vier, 1826 ( = Hydrurga Gistel, 1848) 

 Susu Lesson, 1828 ( = Platanista Wagler, 1830) 

 Nodus Wagler, 1830 ( = Mesoplodon Gervais, 1850) 

 Tursiops nesarnack (Lacepede, 1804) [ = T. trun- 



catus (Montagu, 1821) ] 

 Phoca vitulina stejnegeri Allen, 1902 ( = Phoca vitu- 



lina kurilensis Inukai, 1942) 

 Hyperoodontidae Gray, 1846 ( = Ziphiidae Gray, 

 1865). 

 Synonyms commonly used in recent literature are 

 listed on page 12; see Scheffer (1958) for synonymy of 

 pinnipeds and Hershkovitz (1966) for synonymy of 

 cetaceans. 



Vernacular names are included for most species. In 

 selecting vernacular names, I have been guided, but not 

 bound, by the principles adopted by the American 

 Fisheries Society's Committee on Names of Fishes 



