Baird's beaked whale

Baird's beaked whale (Berardius bairdii), also known commonly as the northern giant bottlenose whale, North Pacific bottlenose whale, giant four-toothed whale, northern four-toothed whale and North Pacific four-toothed whale, is a species of whale in the genus Berardius of the family Ziphiidae. Baird's beaked whale and Arnoux's beaked whale are so similar that researchers have debated whether or not they are simply two populations of the same species. However, genetic evidence and their wide geographical separation has led them to be classified as separate. Baird's beaked whale is the largest beaked whale and the second largest living species of toothed whale after the sperm whale.

Taxonomy

Baird's beaked whale was first described in 1883 by American zoologist Leonhard Stejneger based on a skull from a specimen that had been found stranded on the eastern shore of Bering Island the previous fall. The species was named after Spencer Fullerton Baird, the then Secretary of the Smithsonian. A few months after Stejneger's description was published, Swedish zoologist August Wilhelm Malm published a description of what he thought to be a new species in the genus Berardius, Berardius vegae, based on a portion of a skull found on Bering Island in 1879. Berardius vegae was later determined to be a junior synonym of Berardius bairdii.

Description

The species Berardius bairdii reaches lengths of about 11.9 metres (39 ft) for males and 12.8 metres (42 ft) for females. The longest confirmed specimen was 13 m (43 ft) in length and the heaviest was 14 tonnes (15 short tons).