D. delphis Skull Replica measures 15.4 inches. D. delphis Skull is museum quality Polyurethane cast. Made in USA. Cast of an original California Academy of Sciences Skull specimen. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Known as Short Beaked Common Dolphin.
D. delphis is a medium sized dolphin, smaller than the more popular bottlenose dolphin. North Atlantic coastal and adjacent waters.
Adults vary in length from five to eight feet and range in mass from 220.26 to 299 pounds. Males are generally longer and heavier.
Mature males also have prominent postanal humps. Short-Beaked Common dolphin or Delphinus delphis back is dark and the belly is white, while on each side is an hourglass pattern colored light grey, yellow or gold in front and dirty grey in back.
It has a long, thin rostrum with 50 to 60 small, sharp, interlocking teeth on each side of each jaw.
D. delphis can live in aggregations of hundreds or even thousands of dolphins.
They sometimes associate with other dolphin species, such as pilot whales. It is a fast swimmer (over 60 km/h), breaching behavior and aerial acrobatics are common with this species.
D. delphis are very social animals and engage in most necessary activities such as traveling, eating, and breathing together.
When some individuals are sick, others in the group assist them by using their fins to help keep them afloat so they survive.
Short-beaked Common dolphin has a varied diet consisting of many species of fish and squid that live less than 660 ft. deep.
D. delphis has been known to eat small fish, such as herring, pilchard, anchovies, hake, sardines, bonito, and sauries, as well as squid and octopus.
The diet of Short-beaked Common dolphin near the English Channel consists mostly of lanternfish, Atlantic mackerel, sprats, and squids.
In the Black Sea, their diet contains sprats, anchovies, and pipefish. In the Mid-Atlantic region near the Northeastern United States, their diet contains Atlantic Mackerel. Delphinus delphis eat anywhere from 18 to 20 pounds a day.
Occasionally, different groups will come together to form mega-pods which can consist of over 10,000 dolphins.
Genetic studies in the Northeast Atlantic suggest that common dolphin pods generally do not consist of close kin, but rather of members that are not closely related.
D. Delphis is a least-concern species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild.
