Thursday, December 20, 2012
Unknown
The pygmy right whale, a
mysterious and elusive creature that rarely comes to shore, is the last living
relative of an ancient group of whales long believed to be extinct, a new study
suggests.
The
findings, published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, may help
to explain why the enigmatic marine mammals look so different from any other
living whale.
"The
living pygmy right whale is, if you like, a remnant, almost like a living
fossil," said Felix Marx, a paleontologist at the University of Otago in
New Zealand. "It's the last survivor of quite an ancient lineage that
until now no one thought was around."
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