WoRMS taxon details

Balaenidae

136978  (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:136978)

accepted
Family
Balanadae Gray, 1821 · unaccepted (synonym)

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marine, terrestrial
Not documented
Description The right and bowhead whales are large and chunky, with heads that comprise up to one-third of their body length. They lack...  
Description The right and bowhead whales are large and chunky, with heads that comprise up to one-third of their body length. They lack a dorsal fin or any trace of a dorsal ridge. Overall, they tend to be far less streamlined than other baleen whales. Right and bowhead whales have developed a relatively passive skim-feeding technique, and tend to be slower than other whales. The baleen plates are the longest and have the fines fringes of the four Mysticete families. Viewed in profile, the mouthline is extremely arched and the skull profile is highly convex; all 7 neck vertebrae are fused together. <123> [details]
Fordyce, E.; Perrin, W.F. (2024). World Cetacea Database. Balaenidae. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=136978 on 2024-03-19
Date
action
by
2004-12-21 15:54:05Z
created
2005-03-29 08:12:19Z
changed
2008-08-20 11:25:36Z
checked

Creative Commons License The webpage text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License


basis of record van der Land, J. (2001). Tetrapoda, <B><I>in</I></B>: Costello, M.J. <i>et al.</i> (Ed.) (2001). <i>European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Collection Patrimoines Naturels,</i> 50: pp. 375-376 (look up in IMIS[details]   

additional source Jefferson, T.A.; Leatherwood, S.; Webber, M.A. (1993). Marine mammals of the world. <em>FAO Species identification guide.</em> FAO: Rome, Italy. ISBN 92-5-103292-0. VIII, 320 pp. (look up in IMIS[details]   
 
 Present  Inaccurate  Introduced: alien  Containing type locality 
From other sources
Description The right and bowhead whales are large and chunky, with heads that comprise up to one-third of their body length. They lack a dorsal fin or any trace of a dorsal ridge. Overall, they tend to be far less streamlined than other baleen whales. Right and bowhead whales have developed a relatively passive skim-feeding technique, and tend to be slower than other whales. The baleen plates are the longest and have the fines fringes of the four Mysticete families. Viewed in profile, the mouthline is extremely arched and the skull profile is highly convex; all 7 neck vertebrae are fused together. <123> [details]
LanguageName 
English right whales and bowhead whales  [details]
Japanese セミクジラ科  [details]
Norwegian Bokmål retthvalfamilien  [details]
Norwegian Nynorsk rettkvalfamilien  [details]
Swedish rätvalar  [details]