A New Harbor Porpoise of the Genus Phocoena from the Gulf of California

On March 18, 1950, a single bleached skull of the porpoise described in this paper, was found by the senior author, on the beach above high tide line, along the north shore of Punta San Felipe, in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico. This skull is designated as the type specimen. Two other skulls of the species were available for study. These were obtained by James Warren and Paul Kellogg during December, 1951, at San Felipe Bay, Baja California Norte, Mexico, and are considered paratypes. Seth Benson, of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley, California, first noticed the striking differences that the type series shows, when compared with skull of Phocoena phocoena (auct. P. vomerina) in the MVZ collection. With this stimulus we have tried to obtain specimens of the entire animal, but have been unsuccessful thus far. We have, however, seen it alive, close at hand. On...