Australian researchers discover an animal that's been there all along!

“We’re very pleased to announce that yes it is a new dolphin species and I have called it Tersiops Australis and with the common name of the Boanan following Aboriginal narrative meaning large fish of the porpoise kind.”

That’s the word from Dr. Kate Charlton-Robb, researcher at Monash University who discovered the new species of dolphin in the waters off Australia. 

According to Radio Australia it’s just the third new type of dolphin found anywhere on Earth since the 1800s. 

The dolphins frequent the waters between Tasmania and the Aussie State of Victoria.

“We had a look at their genetics quite some years back and started to see that they were very different from the two formally recognized bottlenose dolphins” Charlton-Robb said during a radio interview. 

“We’ve now had a look at the skull morphology and the external characteristics of the animal and feeding ecologies and things like that … and in every case we’ve found that they are very much differentiated from the other two bottlenose [dolphins], so hence the new species.”

To learn more, follow this link to Radio Australia’s transcripts of their interview, where you can listen to Dr. Charlton-Robb talk about her newest discovery.

Posted under Ecology, Environment, Nature, Oceans, Science, Travel, Uncategorized