File:Mesoplodon_bidens_2.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Species
Least ConcernNorth Atlantic beaked whale
Mesoplodon bidens
SPECIES
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassMammalia
- OrderCetacea
- FamilyHyperoodontidae
via GBIF · IUCN
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 275
- With media
- 290
- Family
- Hyperoodontidae
- Collections
- RBINS-SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE, CMN, USNM, NMSZ, NRM
- Recorded in
- France, Belgium, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Sweden
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Mesoplodon
- Named after
- James Sowerby
- Image
- Mesoplodon bidens British mammals (Pl. 46) (21866206616).jpg
Show 10 more facts
- taxon name
- Mesoplodon bidens
- Commons category
- Mesoplodon bidens
- taxon rank
- species
- IUCN conservation status
- Least Concern
- Commons gallery
- Mesoplodon bidens
- taxon common name
- vaca marina de sowerby
- gestation period
- 12
- taxon range
- Brazil
- short name
- M. bidens
- time period
- Holocene
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens), also known as the North Atlantic or North Sea beaked whale, is a species of toothed whale. It was the first mesoplodont whale to be described. James Sowerby, an English naturalist and artist, first described the species in 1804 from a skull obtained from a male that had stranded in the Moray Firth, Scotland, in 1800. He named it bidens, which derives from the two teeth present in the jaw, now known to be a very common feature among the genus.
Physical description
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mesoplodon bidens” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.