Rare whale species found

[thomas]

No, this one hasn't ended in supermarket shelves...


Just thought it's interesting.


Investigation begins on whale, possibly rare species

=> http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...at=1&id=225396

Experts dig up carcass of mysterious whale

=> http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20020...dm017000c.html


Longman's beaked whale (there are no pictures available except for the one below, nothing is known about their habitat and behaviour)

=> http://www.cetacea.org/longmans.htm

[samuraitora]

sweet...see...we don't know everything.

I love new discoveries. They show how much is out there that we have no idea about.

[deborah gormley]

The find of the century

wow thats excellent and I must agree with samuraitora, we dont know everything even the experts, but its so nice to see the pic thomas

[thomas]

Addendum:

Beached whale first complete find of ultra rare species

A beached whale found on Japan's southern coast five months ago has turned out to be the first complete adult remains seen of an extremely rare species, researchers said Thursday.

Experts identified the 21-foot whale as a female Longman's beaked whale.

Five other remains of the elusive species have been collected in Australia, Somalia and South Africa, but those were mostly skeletal or young. Scientists have never identified a living Longman's whale.

=> http://europe.cnn.com/2002/TECH/scie....rarewhale.ap/

[Maciamo]

It looks like half-dolphin, half whale, doesn't it ? Not sure it's a rare species, maybe just an unusual breed. It is naturally possible (if difficult) as dolphins are closely realted to whales genetically and dolphins have been known for trying to mate with humans !

[thomas]

Must be a mega-dolphin at 7 metres length... Btw, this specimen was buried, not eaten.

There's an entire family of "beaked whales":

Andrews' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bowdoini)
Arnoux's Beaked Whale (Beradius arnuxii)
Baird's Beaked Whale (Beradius bairdii)
Bahamonde's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bahamondi)
Blainville's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris)
Cuvier's Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris)
Gervais' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon europaeus)
Ginkgo-Toothed Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens)
Gray's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon grayi)
Hector's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon hectori)
Hubbs' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon carlhubbsi)
Lesser Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon peruvianus)
Longman's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon pacificus)
etc.


=> http://www.cetacea.org/whales.htm

[Maciamo]

Anyway, I heard that dolphins and whales are part of the same family. Bigger dolphins are almost like smaller whales. Whales come in mainly two varieties : with teeth and without (how do you call the other ? Filaments ?). Speaking of dogs, if a Poodle can mate with a Newfoundland, then a large dolphin can do it with a small whale.

[bartbeanie]

go to that website. checkout northern bottlenose whale.

[Maciamo]

Names are confusing. The French word for "whale" is "baleine" or "rorqual", but these actually refer only to baleen whales, not to toothed whales. The others are called differently. Everybody know and use the name "cachalot" (most of the big toothed ones, like the "sperm whales") and "orque" (orca, i.e. the black and white "killer whale" common in shows with dolphins), but there are other technical words that most people don't know for rarer species(I had heard of "beluga and narval , but not yet of "b駻ardie, hyp駻oodon or m駸oplodon", for example).

Check and compare French names of cetaceas with English ones. http://mapage.noos.fr/chang75/classi/classi.htm

It's interesting how both language have different classification. I thought that scientific classification were international, but visibly not ! For me, a "killer whale" or "sperm whale" are not even whales, because I am used to call them differently in French. So I naturally find dolphins to be closer to "killer whales" than "grey or rorqual whales" because the former is not even a whale (like all the beaked whales listed by Thomas).

Note that the Beluga's scientific Latin name (Delphinapterus leucas) classify it as a dolphin, which neither English, nor French do. (it's a "white whale" for English-speakers !). The Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) is called a dolphin, but is also with the "white whales". Strange...

All this to say that the rare "whale" should be called a cetacea, because it clearly is no more a whale than a dolphin. All the confusion is due to the wide meaning of the word "whale" in English.

[thomas]

I browsed a few German sites and noticed that some suborders of dolphins and whales are often confused in German language too.

Dolphins are actually a family among the toothed whales (delphinidae). To make things more complicated some whale species (like the Orca family and the melon-headed whale) are also classified as delphinidae, whereas some dolphines are categorised as whales (platanistidae, like the South Asian river dolphin Maciamo mentioned).

Interesting topic, learned a few things. More on the classification

=> http://www.iwcoffice.org/Cetacea.htm (English)

=> http://www.meeressaeuger.de/nachklassen.htm (German)

Beaked whales (like Longman's mentioned above) belong to the family of ziphiidae, genus Mesoplodon, which actually gives us no further clue if it's an actual whale or a dolphin, lol.

[Maciamo]

I think we shouldn't be trying to guess if this or that species is a whale or a dolphin, because all classifications are anyway arbitrary. What we can say is that all of them are cetaceas. Among them, I would separate toothed from untoothed, then beaked from unbeaked among toothed ones. So that gives us 3 main categories of cetaceas :

1) untoothed (all without beak) => baleen whales or rorquals
2) toothed without beak => sperm whales, orca, etc.
3) toothed with beak => dolphins, mesoplodon ("beaked-whales"), etc.

Our "rare whale" comes into the 3rd category with the dolphins.

[thomas]

Originally posted by Maciamo
I think we shouldn't be trying to guess if this or that species is a whale or a dolphin, because all classifications are anyway arbitrary. What we can say is that all of them are cetaceas.

Agreed. I also side with my wife who just calls them "cute", especially the Northern Beaked Whale.





Below a dead specimen (they are protected since 1977).

[Eternal Wind]

Its wonderful to discover new species...
I can't wait to see a loch ness....

[earthangel]

What's really sad about this as with all beachings, is the reason for it. I know cetaceans have been doing it forever, but with all the US military extra-low and medium frequency sonar testing going on now there are way more happening.

[timmid1]

The US navy refuses to even acknowledge that its sonar is causing beachings. The United Nations World Charter for Nature (1982) says in part:
"20. Military activities damaging to nature shall be avoided."
But of course the US doesn't see the need to abide by rules it doesn't like.

[earthangel]

Sounds like the U.S. and Japan have this much in common, sigh.

[m477]

But how do they taste?

[SharkLover]

Originally Posted by Maciamo

It looks like half-dolphin, half whale, doesn't it ? Not sure it's a rare species, maybe just an unusual breed. It is naturally possible (if difficult) as dolphins are closely realted to whales genetically and dolphins have been known for trying to mate with humans !

they're in a family called Ziphidae(sp?)...genus Mesoplodon species pacificus and Order Cetacea and suborder Odontoceti

so far there are 21(?) species of beaked whales, 3 Genera (Berardius, Hyperoodon, and Mesoplodon)

Berardius:
Arnoux's
Baird's
Hyperoodon
Northern Bottlenose Whale
Southern Bottlenose Whale
Mesoplodon
Unidentified
Sowerby's
Andrew's
Hubb's
Blainville's
Gervais'
Ginko-Toothed
Gray's
Hector's
Strap-Toothed
True's
Longman's
Lesser
Stejneger's
Shepherd's
Cuvier's