Résumé
The spinner dolphin acquired a scientific name in 1828, when J. E. Gray of the British Museum described Delphinus longirostris based on a skull from an unknown locality (now in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, Netherlands—RMNH Cat. #8676). This name is not to be confused with Delphinus longirostris of Cuvier (1829), which is now considered to be a junior synonym of Delphinus delphis Linnaeus (Hershkovitz, 1966). Gray later described three additional species based on skulls in the British Museum also from unknown localities that have proven to be specimens of the spinner dolphin. These were Delphinus alope (1846), D. microps (1846), and D. stenorhynchus (1866); all are now in the synonymy of c longirostris. The synonymy also includes Delphinus roseiventris Wiegmann, 1844, which was based on a specimen from South-east Asia, later determined to be dwarf spinner dolphin (Perrin et al., 1999).