Balaenella

Balaenella Temporal range: early Pliocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Infraorder:	Cetacea
Family:	Balaenidae
Genus:	†Balaenella Bisconti, 2005
Species
†B. brachyrhynus Bisconti, 2005 (type)

Balaenella is an extinct genus of balaenid from the early Pliocene of the vicinity of Antwerp, Belgium. Its type species is Balaena brachyrhynus.

Classification

A cladistic analysis of Balaenidae places Balaenella as the sister taxon of the bowhead whale in a clade separate from right whales.^[1]

References

1. Bisconti, M. (2005). "Skull Morphology and Phylogenetic Relationships of a New Diminutive Balaenid from the Lower Pliocene of Belgium". Palaeontology 48 (4): 793–816. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2005.00488.x. edit