PMC

(A and B) Distinct tri-colouration, extension of ventrum white above eye, dorsal blaze, ‘stubby’ rostrum and falcate dorsal fin. (C) View of ‘stubby’ rostrum.

Tursiops truncatus (a: representing Group 2 of multivariate analyses QVMAG#1360, as lectotype of T. maugeanus); and Tursiops australis sp. nov. (b: representing Group 1of multivariate analyses QVMAG #1365, holotype). (A) Skulls are shown in dorsal view, note maxilla- premaxilla. (B) Ventral view, location of pterygoids and palatine noted (shown magnified in C). (C) Views of the pterygoids and palatine regions red = palatine length, blue = palatine suture angle.

Red = Group 1: Tursiops australis sp. nov., blue = Group 2: T. truncatus. Individuals with known mtDNA sequence are indicated by★with the appropriate species colour code. (A) Hierarchical multivariate cluster analysis on external morphological traits showing two highly supported groups (cophenetic correlation of 0.747). (B) Discriminant function analyses on external morphological traits delineating Tursiops australis sp. nov. and T. truncatus (Hotellings t2: p = 0.0224).

Haplotypes specific to the study are denoted by ★ red = Tursiops australis sp. nov., blue = T. truncatus. (A) Consensus tree obtained by Maximum Likelihood and Neighbour-joining methods from mtDNA control region haplotypes. Tree is rooted with the outgroup Lagenorhynchus acutus. Bootstrap values >50% are indicated (1000 replicates: ML left value; NJ right value)(intra-species specific values not reported). (B) Majority rule consensus tree from Bayesian reconstruction (MrBayes) with posterior probabilities branch support values.

Red = Group 1: Tursiops australis sp. nov., blue = Group 2: T. truncatus, green = Group 3: T. aduncus. Individuals with known mtDNA sequence are indicated by★with the appropriate species colour code. (A) Hierarchical multivariate cluster analysis on cranial morphological traits showing three highly supported groups (cophenetic correlation 0.8337). Tursiops australis sp. nov. holotype (QVMAG#1365) in Group 1, and Tursiops maugeanus male (QVMAG#1360) in Group 2. (B) Discriminant function analyses scatterplot of canonical scores on cranial morphological traits delineating Tursiops australis sp. nov., T. truncatus and T. aduncus.