|The Mammals of Texas -
Cetacea : Family Delphinidae : Steno
Description. A small, grayish-black
dolphin with the forehead rising gradually from the beak;
20-27 fairly large teeth in each toothrow, the crowns of
which have many fine, vertical wrinkles (from which
feature the name rough-toothed dolphin is derived);
length of rostrum of skull about three times its width.
Total length, 2-2.5 m; weight, 100-135 kg.
Distribution in Texas. Tropical
and warm temperate waters of the world. In the western
North Atlantic they are sparsely distributed from
Virginia to the northeastern coast of South America.
Known in Texas on the basis of two strandings near
Habits. Little is known about
the life history of these dolphins. They occasionally
travel in groups of 50 or more, but smaller groups are
normal. They are probably good echolocators and are
A mass stranding of these dolphins
occurred on the upper Gulf coast of Florida in May, 1961.
Sixteen of these dolphins ran aground in a shallow,
marshy area but the cause was never determined.
Food habits are almost unknown. They
are known to eat octopus, squid, and fish. Nothing is
known about their reproductive habits; in captivity, they
have mated with bottlenose dolphins and produced hybrid
Illustration credit: Pieter