A 38-foot (11.5-meter) whale that washed ashore in the Florida Everglades in January 2019 appears to be an entirely new species. And it is already considered endangered, scientists say.
When the body of the relem washed up next to Sandy Key – underweight with a hard piece of plastic in its intestines, scientists thought it was a subspecies of the Bryde (pronounced ‘broodus’) whale, a whale species in the same group which includes humpback and blue whales. That subspecies was named Rice’s whale. Now, after genetic analysis of other Rice whales, coupled with the study of the skull of the Everglades whale, researchers think that the Rice’s whale, rather than a subspecies, is a completely new species living in the Gulf of Mexico.
The discovery, set out on January 10 in the journal Marine Mammal Science, also means that there are less than 100 members of this species living on the planet, which ‘threatens them’, according to a statement of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
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According to the study, the researchers looked at records of the Bryde whale in the Caribbean and the Greater Atlantic Ocean and concluded that the whales they spotted were evidence of an undescribed species of the Gulf of Mexico.
Lead study author Patricia Rosel and her co-author Lynsey Wilcox, both of the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, completed the first genetic tests of this whale in 2008 and found that the skull of the Rice’s whale was different from that of Bryde’s whales.
The new analysis showed that Rice’s whales not only have different skulls, but are also slightly different from Bryde’s whales. According to NOAA, they can weigh up to 27,000 kilograms and grow to 12.8 meters in length, while Bryde’s whales are known to reach more than 15.2 meters and weigh more than 55,000 pounds. 24,947 kg).
Rosel and her colleagues think the whales in the new species could live about 60 years, but since so few exist, researchers need to further observe the whales to get a better idea of their life expectancy.
Given their location in the Gulf of Mexico, Rice’s whales are particularly vulnerable to oil spills, vessel attacks and energy exploration and production, NOAA added.
Originally published on Live Science.