Editing Pygmy sperm whale (section)

==Taxonomy==
[[File:Kogia breviceps.jpg|thumb|left|Illustration from the 19th century]]
The pygmy sperm whale was first [[species description|described]] by [[naturalist]] [[Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville]] in 1838. He based this on the head of an individual washed up on the coasts of [[Audierne]] in France in 1784, which was then stored in the [[Muséum d'histoire naturelle]]. He recognized it as a type of [[Physeteroidea|sperm whale]] and assigned it to the same [[genus]] as the [[sperm whale]] (''Physeter macrocephalus'') as ''Physeter breviceps''. He noted its small size and nicknamed it "''cachalot a tête courte''"–small-headed sperm whale; further, the [[species name]] ''breviceps'' is [[Latin]] for "short-headed".<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13472361#page/351|first=M. H.|last=de Blainville|author-link=Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville|year=1838|title=Sur les Cachalot|language=fr|trans-title=On the Sperm Whales|journal=Annales Françaises et Étrangères d'Anatomie et de Physiologie|volume=2|pages=335–337}}</ref> In 1846, [[zoologist]] [[John Edward Gray]] erected the genus ''Kogia'' for the pygmy sperm whale as ''Kogia breviceps'', and said it was intermediate between the sperm whale and dolphins.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/31178#page/46|first=J. E.|last=Gray|author-link=John Edward Gray|year=1846|title=Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Erebus & Terror Under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross, R. N., F. R. S., During the Years 1839 to 1843|journal=Mammalia|volume=1|page=22}}</ref>

In 1871, [[mammalogist]] [[Theodore Gill]] assigned it and ''Euphysetes'' (now the [[dwarf sperm whale]], ''Kogia sima'') to the [[subfamily]] [[Kogiinae]], and the sperm whale to the subfamily [[Physeterinae]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=T.|last=Gill|author-link=Theodore Gill|year=1871|title=The Sperm Whales, Giant and Pygmy|journal=American Naturalist|volume=4|issue=12|pages=725–743|doi=10.1086/270684|doi-access=free|bibcode=1871ANat....4..725G }}</ref> Both have now been elevated to the family level. In 1878, naturalist [[James Hector]] [[taxonomic synonym|synonymized]] the dwarf sperm whale with the pygmy sperm whale, with both being referred to as ''K. breviceps'' until 1998.<ref name=rice>{{Cite book|first=D. W.|last=Rice|year=1998|title=Marine Mammals of the World: Systematics and Distribution|publisher=Society for Marine Mammalogy|pages=83–84|isbn=978-1-891276-03-3|url=http://www.marinemammalscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/MarineMammalsOfTheWorld.pdf}}</ref>