Balaenais agenusofcetacean(whale) in thefamilyBalaenidae.Balaenais considered amonotypicgenus, as it has only a singleextantspecies, 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 genusBalaenawere known by the common name, "right whales", howeverBalaenaare now known asbowhead whales.[1]
| Balaena Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Balaena mysticetusIllustration based on recovered fossils | |
Scientific classification
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| 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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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]
ADNAstudy by Rosenbaum in 2000, and another study by Churchill in 2007 finally provided clear evidence to conclude that thethreeliving right whale species do comprise aphylogeneticlineage,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 synonymsofBalaena.
Taxonomy
edit- BalaenaBowhead whales
- †Balaena affinis(Pliocene;Red Crag Formation,UK)
- †Balaena montalionis(Piacenzian;Casina,Italy).
- Balaena mysticetus,Bowhead whale(Late PleistocenetoModern)
- †Balaena ricei(Piacenzian; Rice's Pit,Yorktown Formation,Virginia, USA).
Dubious species
edit- †Balaena arcuata(Miocene/Pliocene; Belgium)
- †Balaena forsythmajori(Zanclean;Case il Poggio.Italy)
- †Balaena larteti(Neogene;Landes,France)
- †Balaena macrocephalus(Langhian;Sos, France)
- †Balaena simpsoni(Miocene/Pliocene;Ancud,Chile) (possibly a member ofNeobalaenidae[6])
Species inquirenda
edit- †Balaena pampaea(Calabrian;Pampeana Formation,Bahía Blanca,Argentina)
† =extinctspecies
| Family Balaenidae | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| The bowhead whale, genusBalaena,in the family Balaenidae (extant taxa only)[7] |
References
edit- ^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."
- ^Müller, J. (1954)."Observations of the orbital region of the skull of the Mystacoceti"(PDF).Zoologische Mededelingen.32:239–90.
- ^Rice, Dale W. (1998).Marine mammals of the world: systematics and distribution.Society of Marine Mammalogy, Special Publication No. 4.ISBN1891276034.
- ^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.ISBN978-0-12-373553-9.Retrieved20 May2012.
- ^The Paleobiology DatabaseBalaenaentryaccessed on 21 December 2010
- ^R. Donoso-Barros. 1975. Contribucion al conocimiento de los cetaceos vivientes y fosiles del territorio de Chile. Gayana Zoologica 36:1-127
- ^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 ofEubalaena:Questioning the number of right whale species "(PDF).Molecular Ecology.9(11): 1793–802.doi:10.1046/j.1365-294x.2000.01066.x.PMID11091315.S2CID7166876.[permanent dead link]