azumakazuma

Azuma and Maya (yes, I know you both will see this, haha)! The inclusion of the Burrunan dolphin as the third bottlenose species is still contested. :D I think Wikipedia just got a bit carried away with saying it is already the third bottlenose dolphin species! But as per the sort of authority in the study of marine mammals, the Society for Marine Mammalogy: "The Burrunan dolphin Tursiops australis, recently described by Charlton-Robb et al. (2011), is not included here; its basis is questionable because of several potential problems: 1) the specimens were compared morphologically only with bottlenose dolphins from Australia; 2) despite the small sample sizes, the series overlapped in all metric characters and separation was possible only with multivariate analysis (which commonly resolves geographical forms within a species, e.g. see Perrin et al. (1999) and Perrin et al. (2011) for Stenella longirostris and Tursiops truncatus, respectively); 3) comparisons of external morphology and non-metrical characters were made only with T. truncatus, to the exclusion of T. aduncus; and 4) support for important nodes in molecular trees suggesting phylogenetic separation was low. A rigorous re-evaluation of the relevant data and arguments is needed." They could be in the future, but for now, we'll still have to study and see. :D