Right whale
The right whales (Eubalaena spp.), also known as the black whales are baleen whales with bow-shaped lower jaw and a head that is up to one-quarter of the body length. The head is hairier than most whales; up to 300 hairs are found on the tip of the lower jaw and 100 are on the upper jaw. There are also callosities (a series of horny growths) behind the blowhole, on the chin, above the eyes, on the lower lip, and on the rostrum (the beak-like upper jaw).
| Right whales[1] Temporal range: Miocene–recent
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Southern right whale breaching | |
| |
| Size compared to an average human | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Unrecognized taxon (fix): | Eubalaena |
| Type species | |
| Eubalaena australis Desmoulins, 1822
| |
| Species | |
| |
| |
| E. glacialis ranges E. australis range E. japonica range | |
| Synonyms | |
Description
Right whales are similar to bowhead whales, but smaller. These whales are rich in blubber and have 2 blowholes. The eyes are very small and lips are large. Right whales were named by whalers who considered them the "right" whales to hunt, since they were rich in blubber, they were easy to catch (they are relatively slow swimmers) and they floated after being killed.
History
Hunters needed the right whale's blubber for meat, because blubber could be boiled to make oil. The right whale's name came from hunters, who thought that they were the "right" whales to hunt. This was because they had lots of blubber. They were also easy to catch (because they were relatively slow swimmers) and they floated on the surface of the water after being killed. Because of these things, right whales are the most endangered of the great whales.
Right Whale Media
North Pacific right whale in Half Moon Bay, California, 20 March 1982, photo by Jim Scarff
Southern right whale in the breeding grounds at Peninsula Valdés, Patagonia
Orange whale lice on a right whale
Face to face with the whale under water
An example of baleen plates; there are about 50 plates in this photo.
The distinctive V-shaped blow of a right whale
A female North Atlantic right whale with her calf.
A southern right whale approaches close to whale watchers near Península Valdés in Patagonia
References
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Bisconti M, Lambert O, Bosselaers M. (2017) Revision of “Balaena” belgica reveals a new right whale species, the possible ancestry of the northern right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, and the ages of divergence for the living right whale species. PeerJ 5:e3464 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3464
- ↑ Reilly, S.B.; Bannister, J.L.; Best, P.B.; Brown, M.; Brownell, R.L. Jr.; Butterworth, D.S.; Clapham, P.J.; Cooke, J.; Donovan, G.P.; Urbán, J.; et al. (2008). "Eubalaena glacialis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2008. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
- ↑ Reilly, S.B.; Bannister, J.L.; Best, P.B.; Brown, M.; Brownell, R.L. Jr.; Butterworth, D.S.; Clapham, P.J.; Cooke, J.; Donovan, G.P.; Urbán, J.; et al. (2008). "Eubalaena japonica". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2008. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
- ↑ Kimura, T.; Narita, K. (2007). "A new species of Eubalaena (Cetacea: Mysticeti: Balaenidae) from the Gonda Formation (latest Miocene-early Pliocene) of Japan". Bulletin of the Gunma Museum of Natural History. 11: 15–27.
 |
Wikispecies has information on: Eubalaena. |