New species of baleen whale recognized

[callmejoe3]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.12776

It seems like extant cetacean taxonomy seems to be on a continuing role between the newly-observed beaked whale species and the Western Indian Ocean blue whale population.

The medium-sized rorqual, the Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni), has been undergoing species-level taxonomic revision for some time now. It was once classified as one species but has since been recognized as a species-complex with at least two distinct forms: the pelagic Bryde's whale found across most of the tropical and subtropical waters of the world and the coastal Eden's whale. There's currently disagreement whether Eden's whale warrants being considered separate species. The Omura's whale was formerly part of this species complex, dubbed the ''Pygmy Bryde's whale'', but is now recognized as its own species since 2003.

Now a new distinct lineage that's been observed in the Northern Gulf of Mexico for the past few years is now currently resolved as a new member of the Bryde's species-complex, the Rice Whale (Balaenoptera ricei).

I feel rorqual taxonomy is pretty messy right now. The common Bryde's, Eden's, and Rice's whale could all easily be classified as 3 species of their own genus like the Right whales, but that's compromised because of the current scheme of the Balaenoptera genus.

Right now only the Bryde's whale complex, Sei whales, Blue whales, and Omura's whales form a monophyletic clade in the Balaenoptera genus. Fin whales are most closely related to humpback whales, which have been classified in their own genus. Gray whales are actually more closely related to all of these aforementioned species than the two species of minke whales are despite being classified into a separate family.