New Whale Species Identified In The Mexican Gulf Of Which Fewer Than 100 Are Left

A new species of whale, known as 'Rice's Whale', has been discovered and properly classified for the first time. Worryingly, scientists believe there may be fewer than 100 of the species left in the wild, making them critically endangered.

Rice's Whale, a type of baleen whale and found in the Gulf of Mexico, had previously been regarded as a subspecies of Bryde's whale, but a recent autopsy of one of the whales has shown that the whale is, in fact, a completely different species.

The paper revealing the discovery that Rice's Whale is a completely new species states:

"Recently, a new, evolutionarily divergent lineage of Bryde's-like whale was identified based on genetic data and was found to be restricted primarily to the northern Gulf of Mexico. Here, we provide the first morphological examination of a complete skull from these whales and identify diagnostic characters that distinguish it from the other medium‐sized baleen whale taxa."

The reason as to why so few Rice's Whales still exist is in large part due to environmental pressure put upon them, including oil-spills, overfishing, pollution and harm caused by industrial fishing processes. Compiled with the fact that the whales live over a relatively small area, they are particularly vulnerable to extinction. Thankfully, as a result of their new classification, the whales will now be protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Examination of the species goes back several decades, and further investigations were prompted after it was revealed in 2008 that the genetics of the Rice's Whale was quite different from that of the species they were thought to belong to.

Dr. Patricia Rosel, who was one of the key researchers into what was though to be a sub-species, eventually had the opportunity to examine the skull of one of the animals that had passed away and was found washed up on the Florida coast. This revealed that the whale had significant diagnostic characteristics that made it completely different from the species to which it was falsely believed to belong.

Dr. Rosel told reporters:

"The size and shape of the skull is similar to the other members of the Bryde's whale complex. The distinguishing characteristics are in the shape and orientations of several bones in the top of the skull that are located around the blowhole."

Once scientists had determined that the whale was a completely new species, it was named 'Rice's Whale' after marine biologist Dale Rice, who had a 6-decade-long career in marine biology before he passed away in 2017.

[h/t: Daily Mail]