rareLC · Least Concernbrowngreyvery-largeopen-water
- Group
- Marine mammal
- Habitat
- Open water
- Max size
- 4.6 m
- Family
- Ziphiidae
Blainville's beaked whale, or the dense-beaked whale, is believed to be the widest ranging mesoplodont whale. The French zoologist Henri de Blainville first described the species in 1817 from a small piece of jaw—the heaviest bone he had ever come across—which resulted in the name densirostris. Off the northeastern Bahamas, the animals are particularly well documented, and a photo identification project started sometime after 2002.
Adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Behaviour
In adult males a single tooth erupts from each side of the arched lower jaw, often crusted with barnacles. A shy, deep-diving whale.