Pseudorca crassidens

Pseudorca crassidens NatureServe Explorer Species Reports — NatureServe Explorer is a source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals and ecological communtities of the U.S and Canada. NatureServe Explorer provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too. NatureServe Explorer is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with the Natural Heritage Network.

ITIS Reports — ITIS (the Integrated Taxonomic Information System) is a source for authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world. The false killer whale is a species of oceanic dolphin that is the only extant representative of the genus Pseudorca. It is found in oceans worldwide but mainly frequents tropical regions. It was first described in 1846 as a species of porpoise based on a skull, which was revised when the first carcasses were observed in 1861. The name “false killer whale” comes from the similar skull characteristics to the killer whale. In 1846, zoologist John Edward Gray assigned the false killer whale to the genus Orca with the killer whale (now Orcinus orca). Until 1861, when the first carcasses washed up on the shores of Kiel Bay in Denmark, the species was thought to be extinct. Based on these and a pod that beached itself three months later in November, zoologist Johannes Theodor Reinhardt moved the species in 1862 to the newly erected genus Pseudorca, which established it as being neither a porpoise nor a killer whale. However, the name “false killer whale” comes from the apparent similarity between its skull and that of the killer whale.

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