New whale species found in plain sight
There was something a little off about the dead whale washed up on St. George Island. Local biologists noted that the poor creature vaguely resembled a Baird’s beaked whale, but it seemed much too small. It also showed signs of an unusual color, with bits of black skin still clinging to its bloated blubber.
Now, scientists have confirmed that the animal represents a previously unknown species — and that several specimens, including a skeleton that hangs in the gymnasium of an Alaskan high school, share similar DNA.
The whale also matches the DNA of three animals found beached in Japan in 2013. Those results had made researchers suspect a new species, but they felt more evidence was needed before the find was made official. Tissues taken from the Unalaska High School specimen (which was found dead in 2004) and research collections in the area show that these black whales have much more in common with one another genetically than any of them do with previously known species of beaked whale.
These could be the remains of a small, rarely seen black whale known as karasu, or raven, among Japanese sailors. But ex- perts have never gotten to examine one of these creatures in life, and they’ve never been considered a unique species.
Those who did see the small whales usually lumped them in with the similarlooking Baird’s whales, assuming they were young or dwarfed individuals with unusual coloring.
It seems likely that these karasu are indeed members of the newly discovered species. But until scientists can observe them closely enough to note their characteristics and sample their DNA, the new kind of whale is known only by bones and a few bloated corpses.
“We don’t know how many there are, where they’re typically found, anything,” Phillip Morin, a molecular geneticist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center and lead author of a study on the new species published on Tuesday, told National Geographic. “But we’re going to start looking.”