"Extinct" Pygmy Whale Discovered, Traced Back Over 2 Million Years

The pygmy right whale is believed to be the last living relative of a group of unique-looking whales tracing back 15 million years, although most went extinct 2 million years ago. These animals look noticeably different from the whales we are used to seeing.

"The living pygmy right whale is, if you like, a remnant, almost like a living fossil," Felix Marx, a paleontologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told Live Science. "It's the last survivor of quite an ancient lineage that until now no one thought was around."

Researchers hope studying this relative will reveal what sets this group of whales physically apart from others, but studying the creature is going to be hard work. The pygmy right whale lives in the open ocean of the Southern Hemisphere and has only being spotted a few times. As a result, scientists know very little about the creature's social structure or habitat.

Researchers do know that the pygmy right whale looks different from other marine mammals. The 21-foot animal's frowning snout sets it apart from other whales. Some believe the the snout signals a close relation to the bowhead whale, while others believe pygmy whales are closer to baleen whales. Unfortunately, there are no fossil studies showing how the pygmy whale really evolved.

A group of scientists recently ventured to fill in this gap in knowledge, analyzing the whale's bones against those of other ancient creatures. The scientists found the whale's closest relative to be an ancient family of whales known as Cetotheres. Researchers thought the Cetotheres whale family went extinct over 2 million year ago, until this recent pygmy whale discovery was made.