Common minke whale

Common minke whale
Temporal range: Pliocene – Recent
↓
A dwarf minke whale
Size compared to an average human
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[2][note 1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Balaenopteridae
Genus: Balaenoptera
Species complex: Minke whale species complex
Species:
B. acutorostrata[1]
Binomial name
Balaenoptera acutorostrata[1]
Subspecies
  • B. a. acutorostrata
  • B. a. scammoni
  • B. a. ssp.[note 2]
Common minke whale range
Dwarf minke whale range
Synonyms
  • Balaena rostrata Fabricius, 1780
  • Rorqualus boops F. Cuvier, 1836
  • Balaena minima Rapp, 1837
  • Balaenoptera eschrichtii Rasch, 1845
  • Pterobalaena minor Eschricht, 1849
  • Agaphelus gibbosus Cope, 1868
  • Balaenoptera davidsoni Scammon, 1872
  • Sibbaldius mondinii Capellini, 1877

The common minke whale or northern minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) is a species of minke whale within the suborder of baleen whales.

It is the smallest species of the rorquals and the second smallest species of baleen whale. Although first ignored by whalers due to its small size and low oil yield, it began to be exploited by various countries beginning in the early 20th century. As other species declined larger numbers of common minke whales were caught, largely for their meat. It is now one of the primary targets of the whaling industry. There is a dwarf form in the Southern Hemisphere.

This species is known in the fossil record from the Pliocene epoch to the Quaternary period (age range: 3.6 million years ago to present day).[3]

Fossil of Balaenoptera acutorostrata cuvieri from Pliocene of Italy
  1. ^ Mead, J. G.; Brownell, R. L. Jr. (2005). "Order Cetacea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 723–743. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ a b Cooke, J.G. (2018). "Balaenoptera acutorostrata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T2474A50348265. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T2474A50348265.en. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Fossilworks: Balaenoptera acutorostrata". fossilworks.org.


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