There is a new whale in the ocean, Japanese scientists are reporting in the journal Nature.
Using analysis of bone structure and DNA, three researchers reported that some puzzling whales, first noticed by scientists in the late 1970s when Japanese whalers killed eight of them, represent a new species in a group of whales that have long been a subject of taxonomic confusion. They call the new whale Balaenoptera omurai.
The three scientists said the whales differed from other species in a jawbone, DNA and baleen -- the plates that hang from the upper jaw and are used to filter krill, plankton and other small creatures from sea water.
PHOTO: AFP
Other scientists are not so sure. Howard Rosenbaum, a conservation biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the Japanese researchers had done "an admirable job to at least open the question as whether this is a distinct species," but added that more DNA analysis needed to be done.
Dale Rice, a retired wildlife research biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said he recalled that when the original whales were taken, "nobody knew quite what they were." Without study of the bones and DNA, he said, they would be hard to tell from similar whales, since "they look pretty much alike."
The Japanese researchers -- Shiro Wada of Japan's National Research Institute of Fisheries Science; Masayuki Oishi of the Iwata Prefectural Museum; and Tadasu Yamada of the National Science Museum -- used samples taken more than 20 years ago from the eight whales killed in the 1970s, and tissue and bones from a whale carcass found on an island in the Sea of Japan in 1998.
The whales belong to a group called the rorqual whales, or balaenoptera, which includes the blue whale, fin whale, sei and minke whales. These whales were thought to be similar to Bryde's whale or the smaller similar whale sometimes called Eden's whale.
In their analysis the researchers said they found enough differences to name a new species, and to show that Eden's whale was a separate species as well.
This sifting of DNA and re-examination of old specimens is often the way new species are named now. Last year, for example, a new species of beaked whale, Mesoplodon perrini, was named (or discovered, depending on one's point of view) through a DNA analysis of animals that had washed ashore near San Diego in the mid-1970s.
In 2000, Rosenbaum and colleagues separated a third species of right whale from two others with DNA analysis, and resurrected an earlier species name that had fallen out of use, Eubalaena japonica.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS