Terran aquatic mammals of the cetecean families Delphinidae, Platanistidae, and Stenidae. The most common types are the Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) and the Bottle-Nosed Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Dolphins are intelligent, graceful, and playful. They communicate through a sophisticated sonar system, which also serves as their primary sensory mode.
Dolphins have their own culture, but they also take part in the worldwide cetecean culture shared by many other species of whales.
Dolphins were the first nonhuman race to be granted civil rights and recognized as sapient. Dolphins accompanied Humans in the exploration and settlement of the Galaxy, and by TE 100 there were Dolphins on most Human-settled worlds.
Dolphins are extremely sensitive to the Hlutr Inner Voice and made mental, if not physical, contact with the Free Peoples of the Scattered Worlds as early as 2 million BCE. Throughout Human history, Dolphins received occasional visitors from other aquatic races. About TE 250, Dolphins were deemed to have achieved racial maturity and were accepted into the Free Peoples. Of course, this was long before Humans officially learned of the existence of the Free Peoples, so Dolphins kept quiet.