Orcinus Fitzinger, 1860

Jo, Yeong-Seok, Baccus, John T. & Koprowski, John L., 2018, Mammals of Korea: a review of their taxonomy, distribution and conservation status, Zootaxa 4522 (1), pp. 1-216 : 140

Genus Orcinus Fitzinger, 1860

Orcinus has generally been treated as a monospecific genus ( Mead & Brownell 2005). Although the differences in the morphology, genetics, ecology, and behavior of the three ecotypes are well known -resident (piscivorous specialist), transient (mammalian carnivore) and offshore (probably piscivorous)- their taxonomic status remains unresolved ( Reeves et al. 2004). While Hoelzel et al. (1998) supported a concept of a single species based on both nDNA and mtDNA, LeDuc et al. (2008) suggested multiple species at least for populations in the Antarctic as substantial based on morphology and the mitochondrial control region. Morin et al. (2010) suggested promoting the three ecotypes to three species based on complete mitochondrial genome analysis.