AnAge entry for Tursiops truncatus
Classification (HAGRID: 02304)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Cetacea (Taxon entry)
Family: Delphinidae (Taxon entry)
Genus: Tursiops
- Species
- Tursiops truncatus
- Common name
- Bottlenosed dolphin
- Synonyms
- Tursiops gillii, Tursiops nuuanu, Delphinus truncatus, Tursiops nesarnack, Tursiops truncatus gillii
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 51.6 years (captivity)
- Source
- ref. 671
- Sample size
- Medium
- Data quality
- Acceptable
- Observations
Estimates suggest that males may live up to 39 years in the wild and females up to 49 years [0434]. One captive female was still alive at 51.6 years of age [0671].
A study comparing bottlenosed dolphins and 7 other species concluded that the rate of telomere shortening was a strong predictor of lifespan, unlike telomere length [1356].
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- 2,831 days
- Male sexual maturity
- 3,689 days
- Gestation
- 365 days
- Weaning
- Litter size
- 1 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 0.5
- Inter-litter interval
- 858 days
- Weight at birth
- 19,350 g
- Weight at weaning
- Adult weight
- 200,000 g
- Postnatal growth rate
Metabolism
No information on metabolism is available.
References
- [1356] Whittemore et al. (2019), Telomere shortening rate predicts species life span (PubMed)
- [1243] Venn-Watson et al. (2015), Evaluation of annual survival and mortality rates and longevity of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) at the United States Navy Marine Mammal Program from 2004 through 2013 (PubMed)
- [1136] Gomes et al. (2011), Comparative biology of mammalian telomeres: hypotheses on ancestral states and the roles of telomeres in longevity determination (PubMed)
- [0948] Venn-Watson et al. (2011), Physiology of aging among healthy, older bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus): comparisons with aging humans (PubMed)
- [0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
- [0610] Ernest (2003), Life history characteristics of placental non-volant mammals
- [0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
- [0538] Don Wilson and Sue Ruff (1999), The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
- [0680] Wootton (1987), The effects of body mass, phylogeny, habitat, and trophic level on mammalian age at first reproduction
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 180426
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account (if available)
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Taxonomy ID 9739
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
- Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed
- Images
- Google Image search
- Internet
- Search Google