Sanja Horvat, Martina Sakač: Ossification of flipper bones in bottlenose dolphins
(Tursiops truncatus Montagu,
1821) from the Adriatic Sea. Original
scientific student paper. Faculty of
Abstract
Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus
Montagu, 1821) is the only whale (Cetacea) resident
in the Adriatic Sea today and is a legally protected animal species in Croatia.
Many biological characteristics of this species are still unknown as is the
ossification pattern of the flipper. Bottlenose dolphins found dead from
October 1990 to January 2010 in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea were
included in our study. We examined 232 radiographs of flipper originating from
60 male and 57 female bottlenose dolphins with body lengths from 99 to 322 cm
and age from 0 to 28 years. Ossification centers and ossification pattern of
the bottlenose dolphin flipper was determined. The ossification flipper
progresses from proximal towards distal bones. We designed equations based on
stages of ossification for estimation of important biological characteristics
such as body length, body mass and age of the bottlenose dolphin. These
estimations will be used in bottlenose dolphin research where only bone remains
are a frequent finding.