General Distribution.—All Oceans, Seas, and Great Rivers of the globe.
This family, including the Porpoises, Dolphins, White Whales, &c., may be described as small, fish-shaped whales, having teeth in both jaws. According to Dr. Gray they form seven families and 24 genera; according to Professor Carus, four sub-families and 8 genera, but as these groups appear to be established on quite different principles, and often differ widely from each other, I shall simply enumerate Dr. Gray's genera with their distribution as given in his British Museum Catalogue.
Platanista (2 species), long-snouted porpoises, inhabiting the Ganges and Indus; Inia (1 species), a somewhat similar form, inhabiting the upper waters of the Amazonian rivers: Steno (8 species), Indian Ocean, Cape of Good Hope, and West Pacific; Sotalia (1 species), Guiana; Delphinus (10 species), all the oceans; Clymenia (14 species), all the oceans; Delphinapterus (1 species), South Atlantic; Tursio (7 species), Atlantic and Indian Oceans; Eutropia (2 species), Chili, and Cape of Good Hope; Electra, (8 species), all the oceans; Leucopleurus (1 species), North Sea; Lagenorhynchus (1 species), North Sea; Pseudorca (2 species), North Sea, Tasmania; Orcaella (2 species), Ganges; Acanthodelphis (1 species), Brazil; Phocæna (2 species), North Sea; Neomeris (1 species), India; Grampus (3 species), North Sea, Mediterranean, Cape of Good Hope; Globiocephalus (14 species), all the oceans; Sphærocephalus (1 species), North Atlantic; Orca (9 species), Northern and Southern Oceans; Ophysia (1 species), North Pacific; Beluga (6 species), Arctic Seas, Australia; Pontoporia (1 species), Monte Video.
Fossil Cetacea.
Remains of Cetacea are tolerably abundant in Tertiary deposits, both in Europe and North America. In the Lower Pliocene of England, France, and Germany, extinct species of five or six living genera of whales and dolphins have been found; and most of these occur also in the Upper Miocene, along with many others, referred to about a dozen extinct genera.
In the Post-pliocene deposits of Vermont and South Carolina, several extinct species have been found belonging to living genera; but in the Miocene deposits of the Eastern United States cetacean remains are much more abundant, more than 30 species of extinct whales and dolphins having been described, most of them belonging to extinct genera.
The Zeuglodontidæ, an extinct family of carnivorous whales, with double-fanged serrated molar teeth, whose affinities are somewhat doubtful, are found in the older Pliocene of Europe, and in the Miocene and Eocene of the Eastern United States. Zeuglodon abounds in the United States, and one species reached a length of seventy feet. A species of this genus is said to have been found in Malta. Squalodon occurs in Europe and North America; and in the latter country four or five other genera have been described, of which one, Saurocetes, has been found also at Buenos Ayres.
Order VI.—SIRENIA.
Family 42.—MANATIDÆ. (3 Genera, 5 Species?)
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| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
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