Risso's dolphin

History and Etymology for Risso's dolphin

after Giuseppe Antonio (Joseph Antoine) Risso †1845 naturalist born in Nice

Note: Risso contributed a description and drawing of the dolphin, apparently never published on their own, to the French zoologist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), who briefly described and illustrated the dolphin on the basis of Risso's account in "Rapport … sur divers Cétacées pris sur les côtes de France …," Annales du Muséum d'historie naturelle, tome 19 (1812), pp. 12-13 and plate 1 (under the taxonomic name Delphinus griseus). A later synonym was Delphinus rissoanus (1827), on which the current common name may be based.