North Atlantic Beaked Whale
Mesoplodon bidens
- Least concern
- Card rarity: Common
- Mammals
Sowerby's beaked whale, 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.
Classification
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Ziphiidae
- Genus
- Mesoplodon