Supplement to the catalogue of seals and whales in the British Museum

by John Edward Gray

Suborder V. DELPHINOIDEA.

Delphinoidea, Gray, Synops. Whales & Dolph. p. 4.

Nostrils two, united into a single central transverse or crescentic blower on the back of the crown. Teeth in both jaws, permanent, or rarely deciduous by age. Pectoral fin lanceolate, ovate, or truncated. Head generally beaked. Dorsal fin falcate or wanting. Skull beaked; maxillary bone spread out over the orbit.

I. Pectoral fin elongate, obliquely truncated on the inner side. Fingers elongate, longer than the arm-bones, unequal; the second and third much the longest; the rest short. Forearm-bones close together, only separated by a straight line. Carpal bones moderate, 5 or 7 (cf. [p. 85]).

A. Pectoral fin on the side of the body. Second and third fingers of six or eight phalanges (cf. [p. 82]).

Family 9. INIIDÆ.

Iniidæ, Gray, l. c. pp. 62, 226; Synops. Whales & Dolph. p. 4.

Platanistidæ (Iniinæ), Flower, Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vi. p. 114.

Fluviatile. Head beaked; beak bristly. Teeth in the jaws, rugulose, crowns with an internal lobe; permanent. Pectoral fin large, elongate, subfalcate. Back keeled behind, without any dorsal fin. Skull—jaw compressed; symphysis of lower jaw elongate, extending for more than half its length. Overlooking the form of the blower, Mr. Flower places this genus with Platanistidæ.