Summary ¹

Hector's beaked whale (Mesoplodon hectori), is a small mesoplodont living in the Southern Hemisphere. This whale is named after Sir James Hector, a founder of the colonial museum in Wellington, New Zealand. Some specimens washed up in California and once thought to belong to this species have subsequently been shown through analysis of mtDNA and detailed morhological examination to be a new species, Perrin's beaked whale, The species has rarely been seen in the wild.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoplodon_hectori

More Info

• iNaturalistAU taxon page
• Animal Diversity Web
• ASM Mammal Diversity Database
• Atlas of Living Australia
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• iNaturalist Mammal Working Group
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
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