Discovering whales that seem to be extinct

A mysterious whale and out of sight is defined as the last living relative of a group of whales that are thought to be extinct about two million years ago.

The new discovery, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B , may explain why the dwarf whale , scientific name Caperea marginata , appears to be too different from the existing whales. the earth surface.

'The cowhead dwarf whale is seen as a living fossil. It is the last survivor of an ancient creature that has long disappeared from the planet , 'says Felix Marx, a paleontologist at Otago University in New Zealand.

Dwarf whale head

Dwarf whales head bulls, with a length of 6.5 meters as adults, live in the southern hemisphere, and very rare experts discover an object. As a result, the scientific community does not know much about their habits and social structure.

The strange shaped muzzle of the dwarf whale makes them look different from other whales. DNA analysis showed it separated from a group of modern baleen whales, such as blue whales and humpback whales about 17-25 million years ago.

However, Caperea marginata's snout proved to be closely related to another whale family, including bullhead whales. But no fossil study has revealed the evolution of dwarf whales.

When analyzing skulls and other fossils of ancient marine species, experts finally found them to be similar to an extinct whale's genus two million years ago.