Berardius minimus
| Berardius minimus | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Berardius minimus | ||||||||||||
| Yamada , Kitamura , Abe , Tajima , Matsuda , Mead and Matsuishi , 2019 |
Berardius minimus is a small whale species from the family of the beaked whales (Ziphiidae), which occurs in the northern Pacific from the coasts of Japan over the Kuril Islands , the Aleutian Islands and along the North American Pacific coast south to Baja California . The range also includes the Sea of Japan , the south of the Sea of Okhotsk and the southern Bering Sea . How far south it extends in the central northern Pacific is not yet known.
Berardius minimus was not scientifically described for the first time until 2019. The species was previously thought to be a smaller, black-colored form of the Baird whale ( B. bairdii ). A comparison of the mitochondrial DNA , which was published in 2016, provided initial indications of an independent species status of the smaller, black-colored form .
features
Berardius minimus reaches a maximum length of 6.9 meters and is thus significantly smaller than the two other species in the genus Berardius , the Baird whale, which can reach a length of 13 meters, and the southern black whale ( B. arnuxii ), the eight up to ten meters long. The body of Berardius minimus is more spindle-shaped than the two other black whale species. The external appearance is best known from a full-grown male that was stranded on November 10, 2012 near Sarufutsu , a village on the Japanese island of Hokkaidō. Except for a small white spot on the snout and numerous healed, whitish scars, which were caused by intraspecific aggression or by bites of the cigar shark ( Isistius brasiliensis ), the animal was completely black. The Baird whale, on the other hand, is slate gray and the southern black whale is blackish to light gray. Like all beaked whales, Berardius minimus has a narrow, strikingly short and straight beak. The beak length is only 4% of the body length. The flippers (pectoral fins of the whales) are relatively small and reach a length of 7.7 to 13.4% of the body length. The fin (dorsal fin) is also very small with a height that is on average only 3.7% of the body length. 70% of the body length lies in front of the fin. The fluke has no central indentation on its rear edge. The crescent-shaped blowhole opens to the rear.
Web links
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c Tadasu K. Yamada, Shino Kitamura, Syuiti Abe, Yuko Tajima, Ayaka Matsuda, James G. Mead and Takashi F. Matsuishi. 2019. Description of A New Species of Beaked Whale (Berardius) found in the North Pacific. Scientific Reports. 9: 12723. online
- ↑ Phillip A. Morin, C. Scott Baker, Reid S. Brewer, Alexander M. Burdin, Merel L. Dalebout, James P. Dines, Ivan Fedutin, Olga Filatova, Erich Hoyt, Jean-Luc Jung, Morgane Lauf, Charles W. Potter, Gaetan Richard, Michelle Ridgway, Kelly M. Robertson, Paul R. Wade. Genetic structure of the beaked whale genus Berardius in the North Pacific, with genetic evidence for a new species. Marine Mammal Science, 2016; DOI: 10.1111 / mms.12345