Neophocaena phocaenoides (G. Cuvier 1829)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Cetacea, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 723-743 : 735

Neophocaena phocaenoides (G. Cuvier 1829)

[Delphinus] phocaenoides G. Cuvier 1829 , Regn. Anim., Nouv. ed., Vol. 1: 291.

Type Locality: South Africa, Western Cape Prov., Cape of Good Hope ("à découvert au Cap,"). Almost certainly erroneous; unknown today from coast of Africa.

Vernacular Names: Finless Porpoise.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Neophocaena phocaenoides subsp. phocaenoides G. Cuvier 1829

Subspecies Neophocaena phocaenoides subsp. asiaeorientalis Pilleri and Gihr 1972

Subspecies Neophocaena phocaenoides subsp. sunameri Pilleri and Gihr 1975

Distribution: Indo-Pacific: warm-temperate to tropical waters; Persian Gulf to Malaysia, north coast of Java (Tasàn and Leatherwood, 1984), China, and Japan: coastal waters and some rivers.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix I; IUCN – Endangered as N. p. asiaeorientalis, otherwise Data Deficient.

Discussion: Reviewed by Pilleri and Gihr (1972; 1975:657, 673; 1980 b). Van Bree (1973) considered asiaeorientalis to be of subspecific rank and sunameri to be synonymous with phocaenoides . Rice (1998:123) recognized N. p. phocaenoides , N. p. sunameri (Sunameri) and N. p. asiaeorientalis (Yangtse River Porpoise).