Bryozoa
Electra
EOL Text
The classification of melon-headed whales has been debated throughout history, as their relationships to dolphins and pilot or killer whales are unclear.
Melon-headed whales are also known by the common names little killer whales and many-toothed blackfish. They are known commonly as elektra tmavá, plískavice Elektra, or plískavice tmavá in Czech, and calderón in Spanish.
The first known specimens are 2 skulls described by Gray in his 1846 report and he named them “electra” from the Greek word “Elektra”, meaning amber, because of the amber color of the bones. A third skull was found in Hawaii in 1848 and a fourth in Magras in 1869. It was not until 1963 that a live specimen was caught at Sagami Bay in Honshu, Japan. The once extremely rare species began to appear in more abundance as more than 500 were seen in Suruga Bay in Japan in 1951 and 250 were caught. The genus was officially named “Peponocephala” based on the Greek words “peponis”, a melon, and “kephalos”, a head (Dutton 1981).
Overall, very little information is available for this species due to the small number of individuals observed.
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Especie altamente social. Por lo general, se localizan en grupos de 100-500 individuos con un máximo de 2000. Al igual que algunas especies de delfines, nadan en el oleaje que provocan las embarcaciones (ahorro de energía) y desplazan, incluso, a otras especies.
12.0 cm SL (male/unsexed; (Ref. 4994))
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| Rights holder/Author | Crispina B. Binohlan, FishBase |
| Source | http://www.fishbase.org/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2147 |
Depth range based on 4775 specimens in 7 taxa.
Water temperature and chemistry ranges based on 3379 samples.
Environmental ranges
Depth range (m): 0 - 500.83
Temperature range (°C): -1.400 - 24.832
Nitrate (umol/L): 0.082 - 40.485
Salinity (PPS): 30.381 - 36.658
Oxygen (ml/l): 0.435 - 8.121
Phosphate (umol/l): 0.047 - 3.118
Silicate (umol/l): 0.494 - 78.143
Graphical representation
Depth range (m): 0 - 500.83
Temperature range (°C): -1.400 - 24.832
Nitrate (umol/L): 0.082 - 40.485
Salinity (PPS): 30.381 - 36.658
Oxygen (ml/l): 0.435 - 8.121
Phosphate (umol/l): 0.047 - 3.118
Silicate (umol/l): 0.494 - 78.143
Note: this information has not been validated. Check this *note*. Your feedback is most welcome.
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| Rights holder/Author | Ocean Biogeographic Information System |
| Source | http://www.iobis.org/mapper/?taxon_id=459598 |
Peponocephala electra is found in warm, deep, tropical, and subtropical oceanic waters between 40⁰ North and 30⁰ South, with most animals concentrated between 20⁰ North and 20⁰ South. While Peponocephala electra is most commonly found in the Philippine Sea, its range includes the Gulf of Mexico, Senegal, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea, Taiwan, southern Honshu, the Hawaiian Islands, and Baja California Sur; and south to Espiritu Santo in Brazil, Timor Sea, northern New South Wales, and Peru. This range is extremely similar to that of Feresa attenuata. There have also been reports by Mignucci et al. (1998) of Peponocephala electra in the Caribbean sea. Other sources report individuals seen as far out of the typical range as southern Japan, Cornwall in England, Cape Province in South Africa, and Maryland in USA. These individuals most likely come from populations in adjacent warmer waters and represent extreme cases of migration.
Biogeographic Regions: indian ocean (Native ); atlantic ocean (Native ); pacific ocean (Native )
- Gray, J. 1871. The Catalogue of Seals and Whales. London, England: Taylor and Francis.
- Dutton, E. 1981. Whales of the World. New York, NY: Elsevier-Dutton Publishing Co Inc.
- Jonsgard, A. e. 1968. The Whale. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
- Perryman, W. 2002. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals: Melon-headed whale - Peponocephala electra. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
- 2009. "Melon-Headed Whale - MarineBio.org" (On-line). Peponocephala electra. Accessed March 29, 2009 at http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=417.
- Culik, B. 2000. "Convention of Migratory Species (CMS): Whales and Dolphins" (On-line). Peponocephala electra. Accessed April 01, 2009 at http://www.cms.int/reports/small_cetaceans/data/P_electra/p_electra.htm.
- Jefferson, T., N. Barros. 1997. Mammalian Species: Peponocephala electra. American Society of Mammalogists, 553: 1-6. Accessed April 05, 2009 at http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-553-01-0001.pdf.
- Jefferson, T., S. Leatherwood, M. Webber. 1994. "FAO species identification guide. Marine mammals of the world." (On-line pdf). Peponocephala electra. Accessed April 02, 2009 at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/t0725e/t0725e20.pdf.
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The distribution of the rare, reported sightings of melon-headed whales suggest that they are found primarily in equatorial and subtropical waters from the continental shelf seaward. They seem to be found in deeper waters.
Habitat Regions: tropical ; saltwater or marine
Aquatic Biomes: pelagic
- Mackintosh, N. 1965. The Stocks of Whales. Larkhall, Bath: Coward & Gerrish LTD..
- Rice, D. 1998. Marine mammals of the world: systematics and distribution. Society for Marine Mammalogy, 4: 1-2.
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| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Peponocephala_electra/ |
Aquellos países que deben de involucrarse en su conservación son todos los que tengan costas en aguas tropicales y subtropicales. Dentro de estos países está México, el cual además, se adhirió en 1991 México a la Convención sobre Comercio Internacional de Especies Amenazadas de Flora y Fauna Silvestre (CITES).
En el 2000, la Comisión para la Cooperación Ambiental de América del Norte (CCA) identificó la región de Baja California al mar de Bering (B2B) como una de sus Regiones Prioritarias para las Conservación de la Biodiversidad en América del Norte, definidas como las zonas económicamente exclusivas de la costa occidental de México, Estados Unidos y Canadá, de 22oN a 65 oN de latitud. Las áreas prioritarias de conservación abarcan siete regiones ecológicas marinas en la región B2B. En México se encuentra la región ecológica del Golfo de California, en donde un área prioritaria de conservación es el Corredor Los Cabos/Loreto. Hay que recordar que el único registro de la especie en el golfo pertenece a restos óseos localizados en la isla Espíritu Santo, en la Bahía de La Paz.
Por su parte, la Coalición para la Sustentabilidad del Golfo de California, cuyo objetivo consiste en contribuir a la conservación de esta región, logrando reunir la mejor información científica en cuanto a los aspectos biológicos, ecológicos, físicos y socioeconómicos, para definir las prioridades de conservación del Golfo de California en un Mega-Taller realizado en Mazatlán, Sinaloa, en mayo de 2001, concluyó que una de las áreas marinas de importancia biológica es el Corredor La Paz-Los Cabos (Anónonimo, 2004), en donde se encuentra la Isla Espíritu Santo, lugar donde se encuentra el único registro de la especie en el golfo.
Conservación del hábitat
De acuerdo a la Ley de Pesca (Anónimo, 1992) y a la reforma del 30 de noviembre de 2000 a la fracción V del artículo 3o de la misma ley, "Será atribución de la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales dictar las medidas tendientes a la protección de los quelonios, mamíferos marinos y especies acuáticas sujetas a protección especial o en peligro de extinción y participar con las dependencias competentes en la determinación de estas dos últimas. Asimismo establecerá las vedas totales o parciales referentes a estas especies".
Ver Refugios, Conservación y Medidas de control.
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| Rights holder/Author | CONABIO |
| Source | http://www.conabio.gob.mx/conocimiento/ise/fichasnom/Peponocephalaelectra00.pdf |
The family Delphinidae has been called a 'taxonomic trash basket', because many small to medium-sized odontocetes of various forms have been lumped together in this group for centuries. Consequentely, the so-called delphinids are diverse in form. They range in size from 1 to 1.88 m dolphins of the genera Sotalia and Cephalorhynchus, to the killer whale, in which males can reach lengths of at least 9.8 m. However, most delphinids share the following characteristics: a marine habitat, a noticeable beak, conical teeth, and a large falcate dorsal fin set near the middle of the back. There are exceptions to everyone of these rules, except the presence of basically conical teeth. <123>
- MASDEA (1997).
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| Source | http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=136980 |
Paratype for Haplochromis electra Burgess
Catalog Number: USNM 219536
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Division of Fishes
Locality: Lake Malawi, Malawi, Likoma I., Malawi, Africa
- Paratype: Burgess, W. E. 1979. Tropical Fish Hobbyist. 27 (8): 91.
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| Rights holder/Author | This image was obtained from the Smithsonian Institution. Unless otherwise noted, this image or its contents may be protected by international copyright laws. |
| Source | http://collections.mnh.si.edu/search/fishes/?irn=5078093 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
| Specimen Records: | 29 | Public Records: | 9 |
| Specimens with Sequences: | 10 | Public Species: | 3 |
| Specimens with Barcodes: | 10 | Public BINs: | 3 |
| Species: | 6 | ||
| Species With Barcodes: | 3 | ||