The Seabed Makes the Dolphins: Physiographic Features Shape the Size and Structure of the Bottlenose Dolphin Geographical Units

The common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is a cosmopolitan delphinid, regularly present in the Mediterranean Sea. According to previous studies, this tends form resident geographical units scattered on continental shelf. We investigated how physiographic characteristics of area residence, with special reference size and shape shelf, affect home range group local units. analysed compared data collected between 2004–2016 by 15 research groups operating different study areas Sea: Alboran Sea, South-Western Mediterranean, Gulf Lion Pelagos Sanctuary for marine mammals, North-Western Ambracia, North-Central have found that characterised wide platform, dolphins wider ranges aggregate into larger groups. In characterized narrow show much smaller results obtained from collective effort highlight importance sharing improve our scientific knowledge field cetaceans beyond.