Delphinapterus leucas

The beluga whale or the white whale is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two living members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus Delphinapterus. It is also known as the sea canary, due to its high-pitched calls; and the melonhead, though that more commonly refers to the melon-headed whale, which is an oceanic dolphin.

Delphinapterus leucas

Javier Yaya Tur / CIUDAD DE LAS ARTES Y LAS CIENCIAS from Valencia, España · CC BY 2.0 · 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
beluga whalePBDB
Sits inside
DelphinapterusPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Monodontidae
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti
Mass
60 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 762 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 59 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 59 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 33 of 59 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 25 of 59 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 51 occurrences774 ka – 11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

59 occurrences of Delphinapterus leucas on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

59 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

1 formation

Cromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.27°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Delphinapterus leucas has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 57 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Delphinapterus leucas and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Delphinapterus leucas and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

273 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 59 sites for Delphinapterus leucas, and this reads all 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

28 references

Each of the 59 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. 16 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 content3

Picture of Delphinapterus leucas

Credit
Javier Yaya Tur / CIUDAD DE LAS ARTES Y LAS CIENCIAS from Valencia, España
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Delphinapterus leucas · nsb-dwm:2019LDL10

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
zmmu
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itDelphinapterus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Pallas 1776)