Balaenidae

Balaenidae[1]
Temporal range: Miocene to present
Montage of two extant balaenids, Balaena mysticetus (right) and Eubalaena australis (left)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Parvorder: Mysticeti
Family: Balaenidae
Gray, 1821
Type genus
Balaena
Linnaeus, 1758
Genera

Balaena
Eubalaena
Antwerpibalaena
Archaeobalaena[2]
Balaenella
Balaenula
Balaenotus
Idiocetus
Mesoteras
Morenocetus
Peripolocetus
Protobalaena

Balaenidae (/bəˈlɛnɪd, -d/) is a family of whales of the parvorder Mysticeti (baleen whales) that contains mostly fossil taxa and two living genera: the right whale (genus Eubalaena), and the closely related bowhead whale (genus Balaena).[3][4]

  1. ^ Mead, J. G.; Brownell, R. L. Jr. (2005). "Order Cetacea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 723–743. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ Yoshihiro Tanaka; Hitoshi Furusawa; Masaichi Kimura (2020). "A new member of fossil balaenid (Mysticeti, Cetacea) from the early Pliocene of Hokkaido, Japan". Royal Society Open Science. 7 (4): Article ID 192182. Bibcode:2020RSOS....792182T. doi:10.1098/rsos.192182. PMC 7211833. PMID 32431893.
  3. ^ Bannister, John L. (2008). "Baleen Whales (Mysticetes)". In Perrin, W. F.; Wursig, B.; Thewissen, J. G. M. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-12-373553-9. Retrieved 20 May 2012. Although Rice believed that all right whales belong with the bowhead in the genus Balaena, recent genetic analysis have recognized three separate right whale species, in the genus Eubalaena: in the North Atlantic (E. glacialis); in the North Atlantic (E. japonica); and in the Southern Hemisphere (E. australis).
  4. ^ Kenney, Robert D. (2008). "Box 1: Taxonomic Rules, J.E. Grey, and Right Whale Names". In Perrin, W. F.; Wursig, B.; Thewissen, J. G. M. (eds.). Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis, E. japonica, and E. australis). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. p. 963. ISBN 978-0-12-373553-9. Retrieved 20 May 2012. The study by Churchill (2007) now has provided the evidence to conclude that the three living right whale species do comprise a phylogenetic lineage distinct from the bowhead and are rightly classified into a separate genus.

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