Nature & Environment

Japan's mystery 'raven' whale is new species

By T.K. Randall
August 1, 2016 ·  14 comments

There may be many other new species out there just waiting to be found. Image Credit: NOAA Tales of a mysterious beaked whale known as 'karasu' or 'raven' have finally been validated thanks to the discovery of an entirely new species that had managed to elude scientists for years.

Its existence had been previously hinted at back in 2013 when three unidentified whale specimens found washed ashore in Japan were suspected of belonging to a new species.

Other samples included a misidentified skull on display at the Smithsonian, a dead whale found on the shores of the Bering Sea and even an entire skeleton found at an Alaskan high school.

"There have been a lot of people out there surveying whales for a long time and never come across this in scientific research," said molecular geneticist Phillip Morin."So it is a huge thing to discover this; it's kind of baffling that we haven't seen it before."

The new species is very similar to the Baird's beaked whale aside from a few minor differences.

"It reportedly has a different shaped skull and maybe a shorter beak than a Baird's beaked whale, relative to the shape of its head," said Morin. "And the dorsal fin is reported to be placed slightly differently, and differently shaped."

"It wouldn't surprise me if there were more whales that we've never documented before."

Source: NPR.org | Comments (14)

Tags: Raven, Whale, Japan