Omura's Whale

About this species

Range

Indo-Pacific

Omura's whale, or the dwarf fin whale, is a species of rorqual about which very little is known. Before its formal description it was referred to as a small, dwarf or pygmy form of Bryde's whale. The common name and specific epithet commemorate the Japanese cetologist Hideo Omura. The scientific description was made in Nature in 2003 by three Japanese scientists, who determined the existence of the species by analysing the morphology and mitochondrial DNA of nine individuals, eight caught by Japanese research vessels in the late 1970s in the Indo-Pacific and an adult female collected in 1998 from Tsunoshima, an island in the Sea of Japan (Wikipedia, general species account).

Later, abundant genetic evidence confirmed Omura's whale as a valid species and revealed it to be an early offshoot from the rorqual lineage, diverging much earlier than Bryde's and sei whales. Little is known of its behaviour and diet. Its blow is low and diffuse. Its occurrence in Japanese waters is documented by the National Museum of Nature and Science marine-mammal database.

Description: Wildlife of Japan guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)