Black whales
| Black whales | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Berardius | ||||||||||||
| Duvernoy , 1851 |
The black whales ( Berardius ) are a genus of beaked whales (Ziphiidae). While their German name is not meaningful (many other whales are also colored black), the English name "Giant Bottle-nosed Whales" is much more apt. They are the largest of all beaked whales, with lengths between seven and eleven, exceptionally even 13 m. A distinction is made between three species that are very similar to each other, the Baird whale ( Berardius bairdii ), the southern black whale ( B. arnuxii ) and Berardius minimus , which was first described in 2019.
The color varies between dark gray, black-brown and black. A black whale has exactly four teeth in its lower jaw, while the upper jaw is edentulous. Two of these teeth protrude from the closed mouth. Like all beaked whales, the black whales dive extremely deep (2400 m are occupied) and mainly eat squid , but also crustaceans and fish .
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
supporting documents
- ↑ 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
