The Balaenidae Family - Mysticeti

Baleen Whales

The baleen apparatus is at its most extravagant in this species. The head is huge, in some species up to 40 per cent of body length. All seven neck vertabrae are fixed into a single unit to support the enormous body weight.



The Right Whale

Most authorities recognise two species of the genus Eubalaena (Eubalaena australis & Eubalaena glacialis) but recently the animals in the North Pacific have been proposed as a third (Eubalaena japonica). Minor cranial differences and more callosites on top of the 'lower lip' and less on top of the head of the Southern Right whale separate the southern and northern species.


Southern Right Whale

Eubalaena australis

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Northern Right Whale

Eubalaena glacialis



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