Scientists Discover New Species of “Black” Whale

The animals have been named small Berardius whales.

Researchers from the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Hokkaido University, Iwate University and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History have discovered a new species of beaked whale. The bodies of four animals of the species, named Berardius minimus, were found on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk.

Earlier, whalers operating north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido reported seeing an unknown small Berardius in the sea's waters, which they called kurotsuchi kujira among themselves. The whale was almost entirely black, according to Science Daily.

A research group led by Takashi Matsuishi of Hokkaido University then studied six carcasses of unidentified animals found on the island's coast in 2012. Four animals turned out to be very similar to the well-known northern bottlenose whale (Berardius bairdii), but had differences — they did indeed have black skin, a relatively small size — up to 6.9 meters (versus about 10 meters for the northern bottlenose whale), and a shorter snout.

The scientists named the new whale Berardius minimus, meaning small Berardius. In their view, another as yet unknown Berardius may live off the coast of Japan, which whalers call kurasu, meaning raven.

In addition, researchers still do not know what adult female small Berardius look like.

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