In the warm seas of the fabulous Solomon Islands, in the middle of those lands which approach the constitution of the Moluccas, we were toured (August 2 and 10, 1825) by thousands of slender-beaked dolphins, whose size among the tallest, it did not exceed two feet. Their general color was brown, and we noticed a white spot only at the end of the muzzle. They jump out of the water like sombres, and follow a constant direction, all forming two lines arranged like a chessboard.
- Compliments de Buffon, 1838, page 616
I didn’t find a whole lot about this dolphin beyond the blurb I just copied above, originally in French. However, I believe it has the distinction of being the smallest dolphin species ever reported, dead or alive. Hershkovitz 1966 and Jefferson 2021 list the species in their catalogues, but do not offer any further speculation.
As can be seen above, Delphinus minimus is significantly smaller than the smallest confirmed cetacean species, the Vaquita porpoise. It's more comparable in size to a large fish, which, in my opinion, is probably the likely identity of the species.
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| Some possible suspects |
Not much to this particular species, but it's certainly good cryptid fodder. I'm totally open to outsider speculation and additions.
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