{"id":33906,"date":"2021-02-03T00:05:27","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T08:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/?post_type=custom_news&p=33906"},"modified":"2021-02-02T15:47:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T23:47:00","slug":"scientists-just-found-a-new-kind-of-whale","status":"publish","type":"custom_news","link":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/news\/scientists-just-found-a-new-kind-of-whale\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Just Found a New Kind of Whale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genetic analysis and a close examination of the skulls from a group of baleen whales in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico have revealed that they are a new species<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised that there could be an unrecognized species of whale out there, especially in our backyard,\u201d says Lynsey Wilcox, a geneticist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who helped uncover the new species. \u201cI never imagined I would be describing a new species in my career, so it is a very exciting discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newly described whales weren\u2019t exactly hiding in plain sight. With a population estimated at fewer than 100, the new whales\u2014which researchers have dubbed Rice\u2019s whales after American biologist Dale Rice\u2014aren\u2019t commonly seen even in the corner of the Gulf of Mexico they call home. It doesn\u2019t help that the whales, previously believed to be a population of Bryde\u2019s whales, have a feeding strategy that takes them deep under the water around DeSoto Canyon, about 100 kilometers south of Mobile, Alabama.<\/p>\n

Researchers have long known that this group of Bryde\u2019s-like whales in the Gulf of Mexico was different. They seemed to mostly stay put in the northeastern corner of the gulf, and didn\u2019t mingle with Bryde\u2019s whales, which are found in the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. They also feed near the seafloor, while most Bryde\u2019s whales typically forage near the surface.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s difficult even for experts to tell large baleen whales apart in the field\u2014so much so that Bryde\u2019s whales sometimes get confused with fin whales, says John Hildebrand, a biological oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego who was not involved in the recent study.<\/p>\n

To definitively tell similar-looking species apart, scientists need genetic evidence and a close examination of the animal\u2019s morphology, Wilcox says.<\/p>\n

Wilcox\u2019s colleagues first began collecting tissue samples from Rice\u2019s whales in 2000, eventually collecting samples from 36 different individuals. Comparing their genes with Bryde\u2019s whales, Wilcox says she and her colleagues \u201cnoticed that they weren\u2019t quite what was expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

To compare their morphologies, the scientists inspected skeletons held in museums. Then, in January 2019, an 11-meter-long Rice\u2019s whale washed up<\/a> on a key in the Florida Everglades. Examining the whales\u2019 skulls revealed some differences in the shape and size of the bone material around the blowhole compared to Bryde\u2019s whales and Eden\u2019s whales, another close cousin.<\/p>\n

The genetic and skeletal differences together were enough to warrant a new species designation, Wilcox says.<\/p>\n

Hildebrand agrees that this \u201cuniquely American whale\u201d should be recognized as a new species. While normally some researchers might want to see the genes of more individuals than the three dozen examined by Wilcox and her colleagues, Hildebrand says that isn\u2019t practical considering how few Rice\u2019s whales there are.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis paper is the best we can do right now to demonstrate that they are different\u2014it\u2019s perfectly adequate,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Rice\u2019s whales are already considered endangered<\/a> by the United States. They were listed under the Endangered Species Act as a population of Bryde\u2019s whales in April 2019, and the discovery that they are a distinct species is unlikely to change much\u2014other than requiring an update of their name. Living in the Gulf of Mexico, the whales face threats from oil spills, ship strikes, ocean noise, and entanglement in fishing gear.<\/p>\n

Hildebrand says the whales are particularly vulnerable to ship strikes because they have the \u201cunfortunate habit\u201d of sleeping at night just under the sea\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt night you wouldn\u2019t see them,\u201d he says. \u201cA ship traveling past could come right up and hit them.\u201d Hildebrand speculates that the whales might once have been more widespread in areas with deeper water, but they are now holing up in an area that sees less ship traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are the most endangered, or nearly the most endangered, baleen whales in US waters,\u201d Hildebrand says. \u201cIn terms of the responsibility for the health of the whale, it really does fall on us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genetic analysis and a close examination of the skulls from a group of baleen whales in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico have revealed that they are a new species. \u201cI was surprised that there could be an unrecognized species of <\/p>\n

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