55 Baleen whales

Baleen whales, also known as whalebone whales, form a parvorder of the infraorder Cetacea. They are a widely distributed and diverse parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals. Mysticeti comprise the families Balaenidae, Balaenopteridae (rorquals), Cetotheriidae, and Eschrichtiidae. There are currently 15 species of baleen whales. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids,, molecular evidence supports them as a clade of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 million years ago.

Aetiocetidae is an extinct family of toothed baleen whales known from the Oligocene. The whales are from the North Pacific Ocean and ranged in size from 3 to 8 metres long. Many of the described specimens were discovered from the Upper Oligocene of the Japanese Morawan Formation, the largest known one from the Morawan's Upper tuffaceous siltstone. Other formally described extinct toothed mysticetis from this time are smaller, from 3 to 4 metres in length. Mysticeti with true baleen are seen in fossils from the Upper Oligocene. The monophyly of the family is still uncertain, as are the evolutionary relationship between the early toothed baleen whales and the early and extant edentulous baleen whales. However, the cladistic analyses of Coronodon and Mystacodon seem to indicate that Aetiocetidae and Llanocetidae are more closely related to crown Mysticeti than to Mammalodontidae, Coronodon, and Mystacodon.

The Alfaguara project is a marine life conservation project operated from Puñihuil in the northwest of Chiloé Island, the main island in the Chiloé Archipelago in southern Chile.

The Antarctic minke whale or southern minke whale is a species of minke whale within the suborder of baleen whales. It is the second smallest rorqual after the common minke whale and the third smallest baleen whale. Although first scientifically described in the mid-19th century, it was not recognized as a distinct species until the 1990s. Once ignored by the whaling industry due to its small size and low oil yield, the Antarctic minke was able to avoid the fate of other baleen whales and maintained a large population into the 21st century, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Surviving to become the most abundant baleen whale in the world, it is now one of the mainstays of the industry alongside its cosmopolitan counterpart the common minke. It is primarily restricted to the Southern Hemisphere and feeds mainly on euphausiids.

Archaebalaenoptera is a genus of extinct rorqual known from late Miocene to Pliocene-age marine deposits of the Netherlands, northern Italy, and Peru.

Balaenidae is a family of whales of the parvorder Mysticeti that contains two living genera: the right whales, and in a separate genus, the closely related bowhead whale.

Balaenoptera, from Latin: balaena ('whale') and Ancient Greek: pteron ('fin'), is a genus of Balaenopteridae, the rorquals, and contains eight extant species. The species Balaenoptera omurai was published in 2003. Balaenoptera is a diverse genus and comprises all but one of the extant species in its family—the other species is the humpback whale.

The common minke whale or northern minke whale is a species of minke whale within the suborder of baleen whales.

Balaenoptera bertae is an extinct species of baleen whale that lived from 3.35–2.5 Mya during the Pliocene. It lived in the San Francisco Bay Area's Purisima Formation, which, during the early to middle Neogene, held a diverse assembly of cetaceans. The species was discovered in 2013.

The Antarctic minke whale or southern minke whale is a species of minke whale within the suborder of baleen whales. It is the second smallest rorqual after the common minke whale and the third smallest baleen whale. Although first scientifically described in the mid-19th century, it was not recognized as a distinct species until the 1990s. Once ignored by the whaling industry due to its small size and low oil yield, the Antarctic minke was able to avoid the fate of other baleen whales and maintained a large population into the 21st century, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Surviving to become the most abundant baleen whale in the world, it is now one of the mainstays of the industry alongside its cosmopolitan counterpart the common minke. It is primarily restricted to the Southern Hemisphere and feeds mainly on euphausiids.

The sei whale is a baleen whale, the third-largest rorqual after the blue whale and the fin whale. It inhabits most oceans and adjoining seas, and prefers deep offshore waters. It avoids polar and tropical waters and semi-enclosed bodies of water. The sei whale migrates annually from cool, subpolar waters in summer to temperate, subtropical waters in winter with a lifespan of 70 years.

Bryde's whale, or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises two species of rorqual and maybe three. The "complex" means the number and classification remains unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research. The common Bryde's whale is a larger form that occurs worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters, and the Sittang or Eden's whale is a smaller form that may be restricted to the Indo-Pacific. Also, a smaller, coastal form of B. brydei is found off southern Africa, and perhaps another form in the Indo-Pacific differs in skull morphology, tentatively referred to as the Indo-Pacific Bryde's whale. The recently described Omura's whale, was formerly thought to be a pygmy form of Bryde's, but is now recognized as a distinct species.

The blue whale is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whale suborder Mysticeti. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 meters and weight of 173 tonnes, it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale’s long and slender body can be various shades of grayish-blue dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath.

Omura's whale or the dwarf fin whale is a species of rorqual about which very little is known. Before its formal description, it was referred to as a small, "dwarf" or "pygmy" form of Bryde's whale by various sources. The common name and specific epithet commemorate Japanese cetologist Hideo Omura.

The fin whale, also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-largest species on Earth after the blue whale. The largest reportedly grow to 27.3 m (89.6 ft) long with a maximum confirmed length of 25.9 m (85 ft), a maximum recorded weight of nearly 74 tonnes, and a maximum estimated weight of around 114 tonnes. American naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews called the fin whale "the greyhound of the sea ... for its beautiful, slender body is built like a racing yacht and the animal can surpass the speed of the fastest ocean steamship."

Brandtocetus is a genus of cetotheriid mysticete in the subfamily Cetotheriinae. The type and only species is Brandtocetus chongulek from the late Miocene (Tortonian) of the Kerch Peninsula in Crimea.

Bryde's whale, or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises two species of rorqual and maybe three. The "complex" means the number and classification remains unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research. The common Bryde's whale is a larger form that occurs worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters, and the Sittang or Eden's whale is a smaller form that may be restricted to the Indo-Pacific. Also, a smaller, coastal form of B. brydei is found off southern Africa, and perhaps another form in the Indo-Pacific differs in skull morphology, tentatively referred to as the Indo-Pacific Bryde's whale. The recently described Omura's whale, was formerly thought to be a pygmy form of Bryde's, but is now recognized as a distinct species.

The pygmy right whale is a member of the cetotheres, a family of baleen whales, which until 2012 were thought to be extinct; previously C. marginata was considered the sole member of the family Neobalaenidae. First described by John Edward Gray in 1846, it is the smallest of the baleen whales, ranging between 6 and 6.5 metres in length and 3,000 and 3,500 kilograms in mass. Despite its name, the pygmy right whale may have more in common with the gray whale and rorquals than the bowhead and right whales.

Cetotheriidae is a family of baleen whales. The family is known to have existed from the Late Oligocene to the Early Pleistocene before going extinct. Although some phylogenetic studies conducted by Fordyce & Marx 2013 recovered the living pygmy right whale as a member of Cetotheriidae, making the pygmy right whale the only living cetotheriid, other authors either dispute this placement or recover Neobalaenidae as a sister group to Cetotheriidae.

Cetotheriopsis is a genus of extinct cetaceans of the family Cetotheriopsidae.

Cetotherium is an extinct genus of baleen whales from the family Cetotheriidae.

The common minke whale or northern minke whale is a species of minke whale within the suborder of baleen whales.

Eobalaenoptera is an extinct genus of baleen whale belonging to Balaenopteroidea.

Eschrichtiidae or the gray whales is a family of baleen whale with a single extant species, the gray whale. The family, however, also includes three described fossil genera: Archaeschrichtius and Eschrichtioides from the Miocene and Pliocene of Italy respectively, and Gricetoides from the Pliocene of North Carolina. The names of the extant genus and the family honours Danish zoologist Daniel Eschricht.

Eschrichtioides is an extinct genus of eschrichtiid known from the early Pliocene of northern Italy. Its type species, E. gastaldii, had a complex taxonomic history, starting as a cetothere, then as an extinct balaenopterid, before being finally recognized as a relative of the gray whale.

Eschrichtius is a genus of baleen whale containing two species: the gray whale and the extinct Akishima whale (E. akishimaensis).

The gray whale, also known as the grey whale, gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, or California gray whale, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of 14.9 meters (49 ft), a weight of up to 41 tonnes (90,000 lb) and lives between 55 and 70 years, although one female was estimated to be 75–80 years of age. The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. Gray whales were once called devil fish because of their fighting behavior when hunted. The gray whale is the sole living species in the genus Eschrichtius, which in turn is the sole living genus in the family Eschrichtiidae. This mammal is descended from filter-feeding whales that appeared at the beginning of the Oligocene, over 30 million years ago.

The fin whale, also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-largest species on Earth after the blue whale. The largest reportedly grow to 27.3 m (89.6 ft) long with a maximum confirmed length of 25.9 m (85 ft), a maximum recorded weight of nearly 74 tonnes, and a maximum estimated weight of around 114 tonnes. American naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews called the fin whale "the greyhound of the sea ... for its beautiful, slender body is built like a racing yacht and the animal can surpass the speed of the fastest ocean steamship."

The gray whale, also known as the grey whale, gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, or California gray whale, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of 14.9 meters (49 ft), a weight of up to 41 tonnes (90,000 lb) and lives between 55 and 70 years, although one female was estimated to be 75–80 years of age. The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. Gray whales were once called devil fish because of their fighting behavior when hunted. The gray whale is the sole living species in the genus Eschrichtius, which in turn is the sole living genus in the family Eschrichtiidae. This mammal is descended from filter-feeding whales that appeared at the beginning of the Oligocene, over 30 million years ago.

The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. It is one of the larger rorqual species, with adults ranging in length from 12–16 m (39–52 ft) and weighing around 25–30 metric tons. The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers. Males produce a complex song lasting 10 to 20 minutes, which they repeat for hours at a time. All the males in a group will produce the same song, which is different each season. Its purpose is not clear, though it may help induce estrus in females.

Idiocetus is a genus of extinct cetaceans of the family Balaenidae.

Janjucetus is an extinct genus of cetacean, and a basal baleen whale (Mysticeti), from the Late Oligocene around 25 million years ago (mya) off southeast Australia, containing one species J. hunderi. Unlike modern mysticetes, it possessed large teeth for gripping and shredding prey, and lacked baleen, and so was likely to have been a predator that captured large single prey animals rather than filter feeding. However, its teeth may have interlocked, much like those of the modern-day filter-feeding crabeater seal, which would have allowed some filter-feeding behavior. Its hunting behaviour was probably similar to the modern-day leopard seal, probably eating large fish. Like baleen whales, Janjucetus could not echolocate; however, it did have unusually large eyes, and so probably had an acute sense of vision. The only specimen was found on the Jan Juc beach, where the remains of the extinct whales Mammalodon, Prosqualodon and Waipatia have also been discovered.

KOBO is the skeleton of a 66-foot-long (20 m) juvenile blue whale on display at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The whale was accidentally struck and killed by a tanker and brought ashore in Rhode Island in March 1998. It was named by New Bedford sixth-grade student Katie Hallett and put on display in 2000. It shares the gallery with three other whale skeletons: a 37-foot (11 m) male humpback, a 49-foot (15 m) female North Atlantic right whale who was pregnant at the time of her death, and the right whale's fetus.

Llanocetidae is an extinct family of ancient toothed baleen whales from the Eocene. It was named by American paleontologist Edward Mitchell in 1989 after describing the Antarctic Llanocetus, but a 2018 study by paleontologists Ewan Fordyce and Felix Marx included the Peruvian Mystacodon and an undescribed New Zealand specimen OU GS10897.

Llanocetus is a genus of extinct toothed baleen whales from the Late Eocene of Antarctica. The type species, Llanocetus denticrinatus, reached gigantic proportions, with the juvenile specimen reaching an estimated 8 m (26 ft) in length; a second, unnamed species, known only from three isolated premolar teeth, reached an estimated total body length of up to 12 m (39 ft). Like contemporary baleen whales, Llanocetus completely lacked baleen in its jaws. It was probably a suction feeder like the modern beaked and pygmy right whales.

Mammalodon is an extinct genus of archaic baleen whale belonging to the family Mammalodontidae.

Mammalodontidae is a family of extinct whales known from the Oligocene of Australia and New Zealand.

The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. It is one of the larger rorqual species, with adults ranging in length from 12–16 m (39–52 ft) and weighing around 25–30 metric tons. The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers. Males produce a complex song lasting 10 to 20 minutes, which they repeat for hours at a time. All the males in a group will produce the same song, which is different each season. Its purpose is not clear, though it may help induce estrus in females.

The minke whale, or lesser rorqual, is a species complex of baleen whale. The two species of minke whale are the common minke whale and the Antarctic minke whale. The minke whale was first described by the Danish naturalist Otto Fabricius in 1780, who assumed it must be an already known species and assigned his specimen to Balaena rostrata, a name given to the northern bottlenose whale by Otto Friedrich Müller in 1776. In 1804, Bernard Germain de Lacépède described a juvenile specimen of Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata. The name is a partial translation of Norwegian minkehval, possibly after a Norwegian whaler named Meincke, who mistook a northern minke whale for a blue whale.

Mithridatocetus is a genus of cetotheriid mysticete in the subfamily Cetotheriinae. Known specimens have been found in marine deposits in Crimea, Ukraine, and the Russian Caucasus.

Neobalaenidae is a family of baleen whales including the extant pygmy right whale. Although traditionally considered related to balaenids, a recent phylogenetic study by Fordyce and Marx (2013) recovered the living pygmy right whale as a member of Cetotheriidae, making it the only extant cetotheriid, but not all authors agree with this argument.

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 less than 366 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.

The northern fin whale is a subspecies of fin whale that lives in the North Atlantic Ocean and North Pacific Ocean. It has been proposed that the northern Pacific population represents a separate subspecies, B. p. velifera. At least one other subspecies of fin whale, the southern fin whale, exists in the southern hemisphere.

Omura's whale or the dwarf fin whale is a species of rorqual about which very little is known. Before its formal description, it was referred to as a small, "dwarf" or "pygmy" form of Bryde's whale by various sources. The common name and specific epithet commemorate Japanese cetologist Hideo Omura.

Pelocetidae is an extinct family of baleen whales. Existed during the Miocene in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan.

Piscobalaena is an extinct genus of cetaceans, which lived from the Middle to Late Miocene epochs in Peru and Florida. Its fossils have been found in the Pisco Formation of Peru and the Bone Valley Formation of Florida. At least some individuals of this diminutive whale were preyed on by the shark C. megalodon.

Protororqualus is a genus of extinct rorqual from the late Pliocene of Mount Pulgnasco, Italy.

The pygmy right whale is a member of the cetotheres, a family of baleen whales, which until 2012 were thought to be extinct; previously C. marginata was considered the sole member of the family Neobalaenidae. First described by John Edward Gray in 1846, it is the smallest of the baleen whales, ranging between 6 and 6.5 metres in length and 3,000 and 3,500 kilograms in mass. Despite its name, the pygmy right whale may have more in common with the gray whale and rorquals than the bowhead and right whales.

Rorquals (Balaenopteridae) are the largest group of baleen whales, a family with nine extant species in two genera. They include what is believed to be the largest animal that has ever lived, the blue whale, which can reach 180 tonnes, and the fin whale, which reaches 120 tonnes ; even the smallest of the group, the northern minke whale, reaches 9 tonnes.

The sei whale is a baleen whale, the third-largest rorqual after the blue whale and the fin whale. It inhabits most oceans and adjoining seas, and prefers deep offshore waters. It avoids polar and tropical waters and semi-enclosed bodies of water. The sei whale migrates annually from cool, subpolar waters in summer to temperate, subtropical waters in winter with a lifespan of 70 years.

Titanocetus is a genus of extinct cetaceans closely related to the family Cetotheriidae.

Whaling in Australian waters began in 1791 when five of the 11 ships in the Third Fleet after landing their passengers and freight at Sydney Cove then left Port Jackson to engage in whaling and seal hunting off the coast of Australia and New Zealand. The two main species hunted by such vessels in the early years were right and sperm whales. Later, humpback, bowhead and other whale species would be taken.