Alexandra Ewing

                                                                                                           9-21-15

Bottlenose Dolphin

Tursiops truncatus

The Bottlenose Dolphin’s scientific name is Tursiops truncatus.  Bottlenose Dolphins live everywhere except for polar waters and they swim in the sunlit zone of the ocean and live everywhere except for cold waters.  This organism belongs to the Eukarya domain and the Animalia kingdom. The Bottlenose Dolphin is in the phylum of Chordata and the class of Ray-finned Fishes.  The Bottlenose Dolphin’s order is Cetacea along with its family; Delphinidae. The genus and species of this organism is Tursiops truncatus.  This organism has bilateral symmetry and is an endothermic organism.  A structural adaptation for the Bottlenose dolphin is that it is blue and uses camouflage to blend in with the water.  A behavioral adaptation for this organism is that it migrates up the East coast.  Another behavioral adaptation is that the Bottlenose Dolphins swim very fast to catch prey.  A fun fact about this organism is that when one dolphin is sick or injured they take turns helping him get to the surface for air.  A few prey that the Bottlenose Dolphin eats is small fish, occasional squid, and crabs.  Some of their predators include Bull Sharks,  Tiger Sharks,  Dusky Sharks, and Great White Sharks. The Bottlenose Dolphin is a heterotrophic because this organism eats autotrophs and heterotrophs.  This multicellular organism is blue with three fins that help them to slice through the water.  Overall Bottlenose Dolphins are the coolest creatures around!

I got this picture from http://www.namepajr.net/bottlenose-dolphins/