Skull morphology of bottlenose dolphins worldwide and patterns of adaptation between coastal and offshore environments

Abstract

The morphological differentiation between coastal and offshore ecotypes of bottlenose dolphins (genus Tursiops) has been researched since the 1960s, particularly in T. truncatus (Montagu, 1821), although most morphological studies have focused on localized populations. Therefore, it is unclear how patterns observed in these individual populations integrate within the global morphological variation. Here we carry out a meta-analysis of global morphological variation between coastal and offshore ecotypes from 532 museum specimens, using both linear measurements (LM; 282 specimens), and shape data using geometric morphometrics (GM; 290 specimens). Together these analyses show consistent differentiation in skull morphology between coastal and offshore ecotypes, and provide a detailed description of variation patterns within each ecotype. These patterns show high individual morphological variation in the coastal ecotype between locations, while the offshore ecotype appears morphologically more uniform across the areas sampled. Overall, most skull shape variation can be described by features noticeable dorsally in the structures of the rostrum, whereas more limited change was found in ventral traits. Our results suggest that individual coastal populations may vary according to local environmental conditions, while those corresponding to the offshore ecotype appear to share similar morphological characteristics that might increase fitness in offshore habitats.