Geographic range:
Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Neotropical: Tropical
and subtropical areas of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
Circumtropical distribution. In Mexico can be found along both coasts.
Physical characteristics: Long, slender,
tapered body designed for swimming at high speeds. It has pigmented
pelvic fins and bands of pigment laterally on both the body and median
fins. There is a square supraorbital region, and the dorsal fin runs
nearly to the bright yellow caudal fin. C.
hippurus is a bright blue-green dorsally, and yellowish-white
with pigments ventrally. Sexual dimorphism is evident, but only noticeable
after 6 months of age. Males are physically larger and heavier than
females of the same age, and have a more pronounced neurocranium.
Adults can grow to up to 2m in lenght and 40 kg in weight.
Food habits: Diurnal predatory fish
relying on its sight and speed to catch prey. Main food items include
teleosts, cephalopods, and crustaceans.
Reproduction: Males and females are
sexually mature by 1 year of age. Females may spawn two to three times
per year, and produce between 80,000 and 1,000,000 eggs per event.
In warm waters, larvae are found all year, with greater numbers detected
in spring and fall. In one study, seventy percent of the youngest
larvae collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico were found at a depth
greater than 180 meters. Adults may live up to five years in the open
ocean. Spawning occurs normally in captivity, with 100,000 eggs per
event. Problems maintaining salinity, food of adequate nutritional
value and proper size, and dissolved oxygen are responsible for larval
mortality rates of 20-40%.
Behavior: Active generalist predators
which expend high amounts of energy in epipelagic regions for prey
capture. Due to their oxygen needs, dolphin must swim continuously
to ventilate their gills. In order to achieve such high gas exchange,
dolphin gills have a larger surface area than those of most other
teleosts. This contributes to the higher energy expenditure relative
to other teleosts. Dolphin grow most rapidly in the wild, often reaching
1 meter in length and a mass of 8 kilograms at the end of the first
year. However, in captivity (aquaculture), dolphin grow more slowly
and have less streamlined bodies. This is attributed to reduced swimming
due to small tanks and high population density.
Intraspecies cannibalism has been observed in some members.
Habitat: mostly surface tropical waters |
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