| Balaena | |
|---|---|
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| Balaena mysticetus Illustration based on recovered fossils | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Family: | Balaenidae |
| Genus: | Balaena Linnaeus,1758 |
| Type species | |
| B. mysticetus | |
| Species | |
| Synonyms | |
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Balaena is agenus ofcetacean (whale) in thefamilyBalaenidae.Balaena is considered amonotypic genus, as it has only a singleextant species, thebowhead whale (B. mysticetus). It was named in 1758 byLinnaeus, who at the time considered all of theright whales (and the bowhead) as a single species. Historically, both the family Balaenidae and genusBalaena were known by the common name, "right whales", howeverBalaena are now known asbowhead whales.[1]
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 theSouthern 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) andBalaena mysticetus (the bowheads).[3]
ADNA study by Rosenbaum in 2000, and another study by Churchill in 2007 finally provided clear evidence to conclude that thethree living right whale species do comprise aphylogenetic 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 genusEubalaena.
The fossil record ofBalaena, 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, andLeiobalaena, described by Eschricht in 1849, arejunior synonyms ofBalaena.
† =extinct species
| Family Balaenidae | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| The bowhead whale, genusBalaena, in the family Balaenidae (extant taxa only)[7] |
| National | |
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| Other | |
