Balaenoptera edeni

Bryde's whale, or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises three species of rorqual and possibly four. The "complex" means the number and classification remain unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research. The common Bryde's whale is a larger form that occurs worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters, and the Sittang or Eden's whale is a smaller form that may be restricted to the Indo-Pacific. Also, a smaller, coastal form of B. brydei is found off southern Africa, and perhaps another form in the Indo-Pacific differs in skull morphology, tentatively referred to as the Indo-Pacific Bryde's whale. The recently described Omura's whale, was formerly thought to be a pygmy form of Bryde's, but is now recognized as a distinct species. Rice's whale, which makes its home solely in the Gulf of Mexico, was once considered a distinct population of Bryde's whale, but in 2021 it was described as a separate species.

Balaenoptera edeni

Uncredited · 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
Eden's whalePBDB
Sits inside
BalaenopteraPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Balaenopteridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mysticeti
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mysticeti

Time the record covers

At most 7.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 7.246 Mya and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 10 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 10 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 10 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 9 of 10 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 0.0 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 9 occurrences7.7 Mya0 Mya

10 occurrences of Balaenoptera edeni on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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

10 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

2 formations

Namba — 34.67°N, 135.54°ECalvert — 13.84°N, 100.69°E

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The named rock units Balaenoptera edeni has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Balaenoptera edeni and its relatives

Holocene

Where Balaenoptera edeni and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from any of those sites.

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Balaenoptera edeni, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 10 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. 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 Balaenoptera edeni

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Balaenoptera edeni was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itBalaenoptera through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Anderson 1879)