NONMETRIC MORPHOMETRY OF THE SKULL OF THE HARBOR PORPOISE, PHOCOENA-PHOCOENA, IN THE WESTERN NORTH-ATLANTIC AND EASTERN NORTH PACIFIC

A total of 456 skulls of harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, from No rth American institutions were coded for 40 nonmetric characters. Code s for morphs were arrayed in relative rankings, reflecting trends of v ariation. Chi-squared contingency test, Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysi s of variance, stepwise discriminant analysis (Wilks' method), and jac kknife methods were employed in the analyses. The nonmetric cranial ch aracters were not found to be an efficient method to define geographic al populations of harbour porpoises. Although differences could be det ected by chi(2) analysis, no really significant segregation has develo ped in nonmetric cranial traits between putative subpopulations of har bour porpoises in the western North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific despite the geographical and reproductive isolation of these continen tal populations. It might result from the species' shorter history com pared with that of the common dolphin, Delphinus delphis.