Family PHOCOENIDAE

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Introduction

The extent to which representitives of this family enter Australian waters is poorly known. Australophocaena dioptrica is usually associated with the temperate and cold water coasts of South America. Members of this family are generally estuarine and neritic.

The cranium is inflated and the jaws are not beaked. The spade-like teeth have two or three lobed crowns. The dorsal fin is usually triangular and located about mid-way down the dorsum. Between three and seven cervical vertebrae may be fused.

They are gregarious, but group size apears to be usually less than twenty individuals. The diet is mainly schooling fish and squid.

The species Phoecoena spinipinnis Burmeister, 1865 was reported from Heard Island (Guiler et al. 1987), but the specimen has since been reidentified as Australophoecaena dioptrica (Brownell et al. 1989).

General References

Bannister, J.L., Kemper, C.M. & Warneke, R.M. 1996. The Action Plan for Australian Cetaceans. Canberra : Australian Nature Conservation Agency 242 pp.

Brownell, R.L., Heyning, J.E. & Perrin, W.F. 1989. A porpoise Austalophoecoena dioptrica previously identified as Phocoena spinipinnis from Heard Island. Marine Mammal Science 5: 193-195 [publication date established from Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1853–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84]

Bryden, M.M. 1989. Phocoenidae. pp. 979-981 in Walton, D.W. & Richardson, B.J. (eds). Fauna of Australia. Mammalia. Canberra : Australian Government Publishing Service Vol. 1B 827 pp.

Guiler, E.R., Burton, H.R. & Gales, N.J. 1987. On three odontocete skulls from Heard Island. Science Reports of the Whales Research Institute 38: 117-124

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