Balaena

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Balaena
Temporal range: Miocene–Recent
Balaena mysticetus.jpg
Balaena mysticetus Illustration based on recovered fossils
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Balaenidae
Genus: Balaena
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
B. mysticetus
Species

B. mysticetus – Bowhead whale

Synonyms
  • Balena Scopoli, 1777
  • Leiobalaena Eschricht, 1849

Balaena is a genus of cetacean (whale) in the family Balaenidae. Balaena is considered a monotypic genus, as it has only a single extant species, the bowhead whale (B. mysticetus). It was named in 1758 by Linnaeus, who at the time considered all of the right whales (and the bowhead) as a single species. Historically, both the family Balaenidae and genus Balaena were known by the common name, "right whales", however Balaena are now known as bowhead whales. [1]

Contents

Balaena montalionis Balaena-montalionisBologna.JPG
Balaena montalionis

Throughout history, the family Balaenidae has been the subject of great taxonomic debate. Authorities have repeatedly recategorized the three populations of right whale plus the bowhead whale, as one, two, three or four species, either in a single genus or in two separate genera. In the early whaling days, they were all thought to be a single species, Balaena mysticetus. Eventually, it was recognized that bowheads and right whales were in fact different. Later, morphological factors such as differences in the skull shape of northern and southern right whales indicated at least two species of right whale—one in the Northern Hemisphere, the other in the Southern Ocean. [2] As recently as 1998, Dale Rice, in his comprehensive and otherwise authoritative classification, Marine mammals of the world: systematics and distribution, listed just two species: Balaena glacialis (the right whales) and Balaena mysticetus (the bowheads). [3]

A DNA study by Rosenbaum in 2000, and another study by Churchill in 2007 finally provided clear evidence to conclude that the three living right whale species do comprise a phylogenetic lineage, distinct from the bowhead, and that the bowhead and the right whales are rightly classified into two separate genera. [4] The right whales, therefore, are now officially in the genus Eubalaena .

The fossil record of Balaena, dating to the late Miocene, encompasses ten species known from finds in Europe, North America, and South America. [5] Balena, described by Scopoli in 1777, and Leiobalaena, described by Eschricht in 1849, are junior synonyms of Balaena.

Taxonomy

Dubious species

Species inquirenda

† = extinct species

Family Balaenidae
Family  Balaenidae
Eubalaena  (right whales)

E. glacialis North Atlantic right whale

E. japonica North Pacific right whale

E. australis Southern right whale

Balaena (bowhead whales)

B. mysticetus bowhead whale

The bowhead whale, genus Balaena, in the family Balaenidae (extant taxa only) [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baleen whale</span> Whales that strain food from the water using baleen

Baleen whales, also known as whalebone whales, are marine mammals of the parvorder Mysticeti in the infraorder Cetacea, which use keratinaceous baleen plates in their mouths to sieve planktonic creatures from the water. Mysticeti comprises the families Balaenidae, Balaenopteridae (rorquals), Eschrichtiidae and Cetotheriidae. There are currently 16 species of baleen whales. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychians, molecular evidence instead supports them as a clade of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Right whale</span> Three species of large baleen whales of the genus Eubalaena

Right whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus Eubalaena: the North Atlantic right whale, the North Pacific right whale and the Southern right whale. They are classified in the family Balaenidae with the bowhead whale. Right whales have rotund bodies with arching rostrums, V-shaped blowholes and dark gray or black skin. The most distinguishing feature of a right whale is the rough patches of skin on its head, which appear white due to parasitism by whale lice. Right whales are typically 13–17 m (43–56 ft) long and weigh up to 100 short tons or more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern right whale</span> Species of whale

The southern right whale is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20° and 60° south. In 2009 the global population was estimated to be approximately 13,600.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balaenidae</span> Family of mammals

Balaenidae is a family of whales of the parvorder Mysticeti that contains mostly fossil taxa and two living genera: the right whale, and the closely related bowhead whale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Atlantic right whale</span> Species of whale found in the North Atlantic Ocean

The North Atlantic right whale is a baleen whale, one of three right whale species belonging to the genus Eubalaena, all of which were formerly classified as a single species. Because of their docile nature, their slow surface-skimming feeding behaviors, their tendencies to stay close to the coast, and their high blubber content, right whales were once a preferred target for whalers. At present, they are among the most endangered whales in the world, and they are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and Canada's Species at Risk Act. There are an estimated 356 individuals in existence in the western North Atlantic Ocean—they migrate between feeding grounds in the Labrador Sea and their winter calving areas off Georgia and Florida, an ocean area with heavy shipping traffic. In the eastern North Atlantic, on the other hand—with a total population reaching into the low teens at most—scientists believe that they may already be functionally extinct. Vessel strikes and entanglement in fixed fishing gear, which together account for nearly half of all North Atlantic right whale mortality since 1970, are their two greatest threats to recovery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Pacific right whale</span> Species of mammal

The North Pacific right whale is a very large, thickset baleen whale species that is extremely rare and endangered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neobalaenidae</span> Family of mammals

Neobalaenidae is a family of baleen whales including the extant pygmy right whale. Although traditionally considered related to balaenids, recent studies by Fordyce and Marx (2013) and Ludovic Dutoit and colleagues (2023) have recovered the living pygmy right whale as a member of Cetotheriidae, making it the only extant cetotheriid. Not all authors agree with this placement.

<i>Balaenoptera</i> Genus of mammals

Balaenoptera is a genus of rorquals containing eight extant species. Balaenoptera comprises all but two of the extant species in its family ; the genus is currently polyphyletic, with the two aforementioned species being phylogenetically nested within it.

Right whale may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowhead whale</span> Baleen whale endemic to the Arctic

The bowhead whale is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and is the only living representative of the genus Balaena. It is the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and subarctic waters, and is named after its characteristic massive triangular skull, which it uses to break through Arctic ice. Other common names of the species included the Greenland right whale, Arctic whale, steeple-top, and polar whale.

<i>Balaenula</i> Extinct genus of cetaceans

Balaenula is an extinct genus of baleen whale species which lived during the Pliocene epoch of Europe and possibly North America. Balaenula is a small whale measuring within the range of 6–8 metres (20–26 ft) in length.

Balaenella is an extinct genus of balaenid from the early Pliocene of the vicinity of Antwerp, Belgium. Its type species is Balaena brachyrhynchus.

References

  1. ↑ Reilly, S.B.; Bannister, J.L.; Best, P.B.; Brown, M.; Brownell Jr., R.L.; Butterworth, D.S.; Clapham, P.J.; Cooke, J.; Donovan, G.; Urbán, J. & Zerbini, A.N. (2012). "Balaena mysticetus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2012: e.T2467A17879018. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012.RLTS.T2467A17879018.en . "The taxonomy is not in doubt.... Concerning common names, the species was once commonly known in the North Atlantic and adjacent Arctic as the Greenland Right Whale. However, the common name Bowhead Whale is now generally used for the species."
  2. ↑ Müller, J. (1954). "Observations of the orbital region of the skull of the Mystacoceti" (PDF). Zoologische Mededelingen. 32: 239–90.
  3. ↑ Rice, Dale W. (1998). Marine mammals of the world: systematics and distribution. Society of Marine Mammalogy, Special Publication No. 4. ISBN   1891276034.
  4. ↑ Kenney, Robert D. (2008). "Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis, E. japonica, and E. australis)". In Perrin, W. F.; Wursig, B.; Thewissen, J. G. M. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. pp. 962–69. ISBN   978-0-12-373553-9 . Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  5. ↑ The Paleobiology Database Balaena entry accessed on 21 December 2010
  6. ↑ R. Donoso-Barros. 1975. Contribucion al conocimiento de los cetaceos vivientes y fosiles del territorio de Chile. Gayana Zoologica 36:1-127
  7. ↑ Rosenbaum, H. C.; R. L. Brownell Jr.; M. W. Brown; C. Schaeff; V. Portway; B. N. White; S. Malik; L. A. Pastene; N. J. Patenaude; C. S. Baker; M. Goto; P. Best; P. J. Clapham; P. Hamilton; M. Moore; R. Payne; V. Rowntree; C. T. Tynan; J. L. Bannister & R. Desalle (2000). "World-wide genetic differentiation of Eubalaena: Questioning the number of right whale species" (PDF). Molecular Ecology. 9 (11): 1793–802. doi:10.1046/j.1365-294x.2000.01066.x. PMID   11091315. S2CID   7166876.[ permanent dead link ]
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