North Pacific Right Whale - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

E. japonica is a member of the family Balaenidae, and all species of this family are often lumped together in popular accounts as "right whales". This family consists of two genera: Balaena—with one species, the bowhead whale of the arctic (B. mysticetus), and Eubalaena—the "right whales", also often called "black right whales". The much smaller pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata) of the Southern Hemisphere is considered to be in different family, Neobalaenidae.

Until recently, all right whales of the genus Eubalaena were considered a single species—E. glacialis. In 2000, genetic studies of right whales from the different ocean basins led scientists to conclude that the populations in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern Hemisphere constitute three distinct species which they named: the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), the North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena japonica) and the Southern right whale (Eubalaena australis). Further genetic analysis in 2005 using mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA has supported the conclusion that the three populations should be treated as separate species, and the separation has been adopted for management purposes by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and the International Whaling Commission.

The cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxa. The point where a node branches off is analogous to an evolutionary branching – the diagram can be read left-to-right, much like a timeline. The following cladogram of the Balaenidae family serves to illustrate the current scientific consensus as to the relationships between the North Pacific right whale and the other members of its family.