The pygmy right whale is the last living relative of a whale species that was thought to be extinct. Livescience.com reports that findings published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B explains how the pygmy right whale's appearance are so different than other whales.
The pygmy right whale, when fully grown, can be 21 feet long and rarely comes to shore, reported livescience.com. It lives in the Southern Hemisphere and has only been seen by humans a few times. Because the species is so elusive, scientists do not know very much about the mammal.
Marinebio.org reported that these whales are found frequently in areas such as Tasmania and seasonally in South Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the Falkland Islands and parts of Antarctica.
"The living pygmy right whale is, if you like, a remnant, almost like a living fossil," said Felix Marx, a paleontologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand to Livescience.com. "It's the last survivor of quite an ancient lineage that until now no one thought was around."
"DNA analysis suggested pygmy right whales diverged from modern baleen whales such as the blue whale and the humpback whale between 17 million and 25 million years ago," reports livescience.com.
The whale's drooping snout makes it look different from any other living whales and it could suggest that they were closely related to a family of whales such as the bowhead whale, reports livescience.com.
"The upper jaw is arched while the lower jaw, which extends slightly beyond the upper jaw, is curved. They upper jaw features between 210-230 baleen plates on each side that measure up to 69 cm and are yellow-white with a dark brown band," reported marinebio.org
Marx analayzed bones from the pygmy whale's skull and other fossil fragments to study the pygmy right whale.
Researchers found that the pygmy whale's skull resembles an extinct family of whales called cetotheres, which was thought to have gone extinct nearly 2 million years ago.
See a photo of the whale here.
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