Grey Whale breaching
The angle here shows the distinctive head shape of a Grey Whale which played a part in its original naming and identification. It was named new to science by Lilljeborg in 1861 as Balaenoptera robusta. But in 1865 John Gray thought it was not a baleen whale based on its rib, scapula and jaw so he created the genus Eschrichtius for it. It was called Gray Whale (American spelling of grey) after its colour, not John Gray. But perhaps the most unusual thing is that this species was described on the basis of sub-fossil bones found in Britain and Sweden, yet the whale was by then confined to the Pacific Ocean. Pacific Grey Whales were described by Scammon and Cope in 1869 (as Rhachianectes glaucus) but by the 1930s skeletal comparisons showed that the robust jaw bones from Europe were the same species at the Pacific Grey Whale. It also shows us there was once an Atlantic population of Grey Whales that became extinct. Gray chose the unwieldy genus Eschrichtius to honour Danish whale expert Daniel Eschricht who had recently died in 1863. Robustus came from the robust jaw, adapted for ploughing the sea-bed for food and more robust than any other whale jaw. Here is a Blue Whale lunge feeding and you can see the lower jaw bone is much more slender than this Grey Whale: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/52742997195/in/photolist
Grey Whale breaching
The angle here shows the distinctive head shape of a Grey Whale which played a part in its original naming and identification. It was named new to science by Lilljeborg in 1861 as Balaenoptera robusta. But in 1865 John Gray thought it was not a baleen whale based on its rib, scapula and jaw so he created the genus Eschrichtius for it. It was called Gray Whale (American spelling of grey) after its colour, not John Gray. But perhaps the most unusual thing is that this species was described on the basis of sub-fossil bones found in Britain and Sweden, yet the whale was by then confined to the Pacific Ocean. Pacific Grey Whales were described by Scammon and Cope in 1869 (as Rhachianectes glaucus) but by the 1930s skeletal comparisons showed that the robust jaw bones from Europe were the same species at the Pacific Grey Whale. It also shows us there was once an Atlantic population of Grey Whales that became extinct. Gray chose the unwieldy genus Eschrichtius to honour Danish whale expert Daniel Eschricht who had recently died in 1863. Robustus came from the robust jaw, adapted for ploughing the sea-bed for food and more robust than any other whale jaw. Here is a Blue Whale lunge feeding and you can see the lower jaw bone is much more slender than this Grey Whale: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/52742997195/in/photolist