Is the resonance D(2637) really a radial excitation?

We consider various possible identifications of the quantum numbers of the resonance D(2637) recently observed by DELPHI in the D*pi pi channel. We ar gue that in spite of a good agreement of the measured mass with the quark-m odel prediction for the radial excitation, a total width as small as less t han or equal to 15 MeV makes problematic its identification as a radial cha rm excitation. The J(P) = 2(-), 3(-) orbitally excited mesons with such a m ass could have widths of the observed order of magnitude. However in this c ase one would expect two neighbouring states with the mass difference of ab out 30-50 MeV corresponding to the nearly degenerate components of the heav y-meson multiplet with light-quanta angular momentum j = 5/2, and moreover, according to the quark-model predictions the mass of the orbital excitatio n should be more than 50 MeV larger than 2637 MeV. Thus we conclude that, a t present, we find no fully convincing understanding of the quantum numbers of the observed resonance. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.