Orcinus orca (Linnaeus 1758)

[Delphinus] orca Linnaeus 1758, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., Vol. 1: 77.

Type Locality: E North Atlantic ("Oceano Europaeo").

Vernacular Names: Killer Whale.

Synonyms: Orcinus ater (Cope in Scammon 1869); Orcinus capensis (Gray 1846); Orcinus glacialis Berzin and Vladimirov 1983; Orcinus gladiator (Bonnaterre 1789); Orcinus nanus Mikhalev and Ivashin 1981; Orcinus rectipinna (Cope in Scammon 1869) .

Distribution: Worldwide: all seas and oceans.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix II; IUCN – Lower Risk (cd).

Discussion: Reviewed by Heyning and Dahlheim (1988, Mammalian Species, 304). Rice (1998:118) recognized the possibility that O. glacialis represented a separate taxon, but did assign specific or subspecific status to it. Rice (1998:118) considered O. nanus a nomen nudum, which we agree with.