Editing Pygmy right whale (section)

== Taxonomy ==
[[File:Caperea marginata MNHN.png|thumb|left|Skull at the [[National Museum of Natural History, France]]]]
During the 1839-45 voyage of [[James Clark Ross]], naturalists found bones and baleen plates resembling a smaller version of the [[right whale]]. In his ''Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Erebus and Terror'' (1846), [[John Edward Gray]] described the new species, naming it ''Balaena marginata''. In 1864, Gray established a new genus (''Caperea'') after receiving a skull and some bones of another specimen. Six years later, in 1870, he added the name ''Neobalaena''. He soon realized the three species were one and the same: ''Caperea marginata''<ref>Cousteau, Jacques, ''Whales'' (1986), p. 70.</ref> (''caperea'' means "wrinkle" in Latin, "referring to the wrinkled appearance of the ear bone"; while ''marginata'' translates to "enclosed with a border", which "refers to the dark border around the baleen plates of some individuals").<ref>Reeves, Randall, ''Guide to Marine Mammals of the World'' (2002), p. 202.</ref> In research findings published on 18 December 2012, paleontologist Felix Marx compared the skull bones of pygmy right whales to those of extinct cetaceans, finding it to be a close relative to the [[Cetotheriidae]], making the pygmy right whale a [[living fossil]].<ref name=Fordyce2013/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/1219/Extinct-whale-found-Odd-looking-pygmy-whale-traced-back-2-million-years |title='Extinct' whale found: Odd-looking pygmy whale traced back 2 million years |publisher=CSMonitor.com |date=23 April 2012 |access-date=19 December 2012}}</ref> A 2023 study using [[genomic DNA]] confirmed that pygmy right whales are more closely related to [[rorqual]]s than to balaenid right whales, consistent with a close relationship with the cetotheres.<ref name=Dutoit2023>{{cite journal |last1= Dutoit |first1= L. |last2= Mitchell |first2= K.J. |display-authors=etal |date= July 2023 |title= Convergent evolution of skim feeding in baleen whales |journal= Marine Mammal Science |volume= 39 |issue= 4 |pages= 1337–1343 |doi= 10.1111/mms.13047|doi-access= free |bibcode= 2023MMamS..39.1337D }}</ref>

In 2012, Italian palaeontologist Michelangelo Bisconti described ''[[Miocaperea pulchra]]'', a first fossil pygmy right whale from Peru.  This new genus differs from the living genus in some cranial details, but Bisconti's study confirmed the monophyly of the Neobalaenidae and he concluded that the rorqual-like features in ''C. marginata'' must be the result of parallel evolution.  The presence of a fossil neobalaenid some {{Convert|2000|km|abbr=on}} north of the known range of ''C. marginata'', suggests that environmental change has caused a southern shift in neobalaenid distribution.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Bisconti | first = M.
 | title = Comparative osteology and phylogenetic relationships of ''Miocaperea pulchra'', the first fossil pygmy right whale genus and species (Cetacea, Mysticeti, Neobalaenidae) | year = 2012 | journal = Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society | volume = 166 | issue = 4 | pages = 876–911
 | doi = 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2012.00862.x| doi-access = free }}</ref> A second, undescribed species was tentatively assigned to Neobalaenidae in 2012.<ref name=Fitzgerald2012>{{cite journal|last1=Fitzgerald|first1=Erich M. G.|title=Possible neobalaenid from the Miocene of Australia implies a long evolutionary history for the pygmy right whale ''Caperea marginata'' (Cetacea, Mysticeti)|journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology|date=2012|volume=32|issue=4|pages=976–980|doi=10.1080/02724634.2012.669803|bibcode=2012JVPal..32..976F |s2cid=83784488}}</ref> A fossil from the [[Messinian]] age ([[Late Miocene]]) about 6.2 to 5.4 million years ago has been identified as ''Caperea'' sp. in 2018.<ref name=Miocene>{{cite journal|title= A Miocene pygmy right whale fossil from Australia| year=2018| doi=10.7717/peerj.5025| last1=Marx| first1=Felix G.| last2=Park| first2=Travis| last3=Fitzgerald| first3=Erich M.G.| last4=Evans| first4=Alistair R.| journal=PeerJ| volume=6| pages=e5025| pmid=29942692| pmc=6016540| doi-access=free}}</ref>