River dolphin images - stock photos, illustrations & facts showing Amazon river dolphin, South Asian river dolphin, Chinese river dolphin, and La Plata dolphin Species
River dolphins or freshwater dolphins are four species of dolphins that inhabit freshwater rivers and estuaries. The river dolphins are consist of the extant families Platanistidae (the Indian dolphins), Iniidae (the Amazonian dolphins), and Pontoporiidae (the brackish dolphins).
The Amazon river...
more »River dolphin images - stock photos, illustrations & facts showing Amazon river dolphin, South Asian river dolphin, Chinese river dolphin, and La Plata dolphin Species
River dolphins or freshwater dolphins are four species of dolphins that inhabit freshwater rivers and estuaries. The river dolphins are consist of the extant families Platanistidae (the Indian dolphins), Iniidae (the Amazonian dolphins), and Pontoporiidae (the brackish dolphins).
The Amazon river dolphins, Inia geoffrensis, also known as the boto, bufeo or pink river dolphin are distributed in the Amazon basin, the upper Madeira River in Bolivia, and the Orinoco basin. The endangered South Asian river dolphin, Platanista gangetica, is split into two subspecies, the Ganges river dolphin (P. g. gangetica) and the Indus river dolphin (P. g. minor). The Ganges river dolphin is primarily found in the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers and their tributaries in India, Bangladesh and Nepal while the Indus river dolphin is only found in the Indus river in Pakistan. Until 1998, they were regarded as separate species, then their classification was changed from to subspecies of a single species.
The baiji, Lipotes vexillifer, also known as Chinese river dolphin, Yangtze River dolphin, whitefin dolphin and Yangtze dolphin, is a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River in China. The 2007 IUCN Red List classifies it as critically endangered and possibly extinct. The La Plata river dolphin, Pontoporia blainvillei, also known as franciscana or toninha, lives in coastal Atlantic waters of southeastern South America. It is the only member of the river dolphin group that lives in near-shore marine and saltwater estuaries, rather than exclusively in freshwater systems.
« less
