Balaenidae

Balaenidae is a family of whales of the parvorder Mysticeti that contains mostly fossil taxa and two living genera: the right whale, and the closely related bowhead whale.

Balaenidae

PaleoNeolitic (montage creator) · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
right whalePBDB
Sits inside
ChaeomysticetiPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mysticeti
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mysticeti

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 597 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 33 of 597 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 84 of 597 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 89 of 597 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 4 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 18 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 23 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 36 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 17 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 461 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

597 occurrences of Balaenidae on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

597 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

60 formations

Yorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WYorktown — 37.20°N, 76.90°WYorktown — 37.04°N, 76.36°WRed Crag — 51.96°N, 1.35°EPort Campbell Limestone — 37.72°S, 141.93°EPort Campbell Limestone — 38.37°S, 141.63°ELillo — 51.21°N, 4.43°ELillo — 51.28°N, 4.33°EPurisima — 38.05°N, 122.94°WPurisima — 37.28°N, 122.41°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.93°N, 1.30°EVillamagna — 43.59°N, 10.67°EVillamagna — 43.61°N, 10.78°EBlack Rock Sandstone — 37.99°S, 145.04°EPampeana — 38.73°S, 62.27°WNa-arai — 35.81°N, 140.81°EHorokaoshirarika — 43.84°N, 141.88°EWaccamaw — 33.10°N, 80.31°WMaeda Sand — 43.13°N, 141.27°ETamiami — 27.34°N, 82.51°WKokoamu Greensand — 44.92°S, 170.62°ETemblor — 35.30°N, 118.50°WGaiman — 43.33°S, 65.32°WSabbie d'Asti — 44.96°N, 8.26°EWhaler's Bluff — 38.36°S, 141.60°EJemmys Point — 37.82°S, 148.13°EDry Creek — 34.83°S, 138.61°EDrakes Bay — 37.99°N, 123.00°WEntre Rios — 33.72°S, 59.25°WLas Escobas — 34.89°S, 57.95°W

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The named rock units Balaenidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 514 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

1,363 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 545 sites for Balaenidae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

147 references

Each of the 597 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 135 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Balaenidae

Credit
PaleoNeolitic (montage creator)
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itChaeomysticeti through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1821