Editing Gray whale (section)

==Taxonomy==
[[File:Gray whale skeleton.jpg|thumb|left|Skeleton]] 
The gray whale is traditionally placed as the only living species in its genus and family, ''[[Eschrichtius]]'' and [[Eschrichtiidae]],<ref name="TPBDB">[https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=42976 The Paleobiology Database Eschrichtiidae entry]  accessed on 26 December 2010</ref> but an extinct species was discovered and placed in the genus in 2017, the [[Akishima whale]] (''E. akishimaensis'').<ref>{{cite journal|first1=T.|last1=Kimura|first2=Y.|last2=Hasegawa|first3=N.|last3=Kohno|year=2017|title=A new species of the genus ''Eschrichtius'' (Cetacea: Mysticeti) from the Early Pleistocene of Japan|journal=Paleontological Research|volume=22|issue=1|pages=1–19|doi=10.2517/2017PR007|s2cid=134494152}}</ref>  Some recent studies place gray whales as being outside the rorqual [[clade]], but as the closest relatives to the rorquals.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Seeman, Mette E.|display-authors=etal|date=December 2009|title=Radiation of extant cetaceans driven by restructuring of the ocean|journal=Systematic Biology|volume=58|issue=6|pages=573–585|doi=10.1093/sysbio/syp060|jstor=25677547|pmc=2777972|pmid=20525610}}</ref> But other recent [[DNA]] analyses have suggested that certain [[rorqual]]s of the family [[Balaenopteridae]], such as the [[humpback whale]], ''Megaptera novaeangliae'', and [[fin whale]], ''Balaenoptera physalus'', are more closely related to the gray whale than they are to some other rorquals, such as the [[minke whale]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Cetacean mitochondrial DNA control region: sequences of all extant baleen whales and two sperm whale species|author=Arnason, U.|author2=Gullberg A.|author3=Widegren, B.|name-list-style=amp|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution|volume=10|pages=960–970|year=1993|pmid=8412655|issue=5|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040061|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Mitochondrial phylogenetics and evolution of mysticete whales|author=Sasaki, T. |journal=Systematic Biology|volume=54|issue=1|pages=77–90|year=2005|doi=10.1080/10635150590905939|pmid=15805012|last2=Nikaido|first2=Masato|last3=Hamilton|first3=Healy|last4=Goto|first4=Mutsuo|last5=Kato|first5=Hidehiro|last6=Kanda|first6=Naohisa|last7=Pastene|first7=Luis|last8=Cao|first8=Ying|last9=Fordyce|first9=R.|last10=Hasegawa |first10=Masami |last11=Okada |first11=Norihiro |display-authors=8 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=McGowen|first1=Michael R|last2=Tsagkogeorga|first2=Georgia|last3=Álvarez-Carretero|first3=Sandra|last4=dos Reis|first4=Mario|last5=Struebig|first5=Monika|last6=Deaville|first6=Robert|last7=Jepson|first7=Paul D|last8=Jarman|first8=Simon|last9=Polanowski|first9=Andrea|last10=Morin|first10=Phillip A|last11=Rossiter|first11=Stephen J|date=2019-10-21|title=Phylogenomic Resolution of the Cetacean Tree of Life Using Target Sequence Capture|journal=Systematic Biology|volume=69|issue=3|pages=479–501|doi=10.1093/sysbio/syz068|issn=1063-5157|pmc=7164366|pmid=31633766}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Árnason|first1=Úlfur|last2=Lammers|first2=Fritjof|last3=Kumar|first3=Vikas|last4=Nilsson|first4=Maria A.|last5=Janke|first5=Axel|year=2018|title=Whole-genome sequencing of the blue whale and other rorquals finds signatures for introgressive gene flow|journal=[[Science Advances]]|volume=4|issue=4|pages=eaap9873|bibcode=2018SciA....4.9873A|doi=10.1126/sciadv.aap9873|pmc=5884691|pmid=29632892}}</ref> The [[American Society of Mammalogists]] has followed this classification.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Explore the Database|url=https://www.mammaldiversity.org/explore.html#species-id=1006404|access-date=2021-08-20|website=www.mammaldiversity.org}}</ref>

[[John Edward Gray]] placed it in its own genus in 1865, naming it in honour of physician and zoologist [[Daniel Frederik Eschricht]].<ref>{{Cite journal|author= Gray |year= 1864 |title=''Eschrichtius'' |journal= Annals and Magazine of Natural History |volume=3 |issue=14 |page=350}}</ref> The common name of the whale comes from its coloration. The subfossil remains of now extinct gray whales from the Atlantic coasts of England and Sweden were used by Gray to make the first scientific description of a species then surviving only in Pacific waters.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0021295|title=What happened to gray whales during the Pleistocene? The ecological impact of sea-level change on benthic feeding areas in the North Pacific Ocean|year=2011|editor1-last=Goswami|editor1-first=Anjali|author1-link=Nicholas Pyenson|last1=Pyenson|first1=Nicholas D.|last2=Lindberg|first2=David R.|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=6|issue=7|pages=e21295|pmid=21754984|pmc=3130736|bibcode=2011PLoSO...621295P|doi-access=free}}</ref> The living Pacific species was described by Cope as ''Rhachianectes glaucus'' in 1869.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Cope |year=1869|title= Rhachianectes |journal= Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia |volume= 21|page=15 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6587914#page/23/mode/1up }}</ref> Skeletal comparisons showed the Pacific species to be identical to the Atlantic remains in the 1930s, and Gray's naming has been generally accepted since.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cederlund |first=BA |year=1938|title= A subfossil gray whale discovered in Sweden in 1859|journal=Zoologiska Bidrag från Uppsala |volume=18 |pages= 269–286}}</ref><ref name = "sbjhnc">{{Cite book|vauthors=Mead JG, Mitchell ED |veditors=Jones ML, Swartz SL, Leatherwood S |title=The Gray Whale |year=1984|publisher= Academic Press|location= London|pages= 33–53|chapter= Atlantic gray whales}}</ref> Although identity between the Atlantic and Pacific populations cannot be proven by anatomical data, its skeleton is distinctive and easy to distinguish from that of all other living whales.<ref name="Bryant">{{Cite journal|last=Bryant |first=PJ |year=1995|title= Dating remains of gray whales from the eastern North Atlantic|jstor=1382754|journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages= 857–861 |doi=10.2307/1382754}}</ref>

Many other names have been ascribed to the gray whale, including desert whale,<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Waser, Katherine |title=Ecotourism and the desert whale: An interview with Dr. Emily Young|year=1998|url=http://ag.arizona.edu/oals/ALN/aln43/baja.html| journal=Arid Lands Newsletter}}</ref> devilfish, gray back, mussel digger and rip sack.<ref name=ITIS>{{ITIS |id=180521 |taxon=Eschrichtius robustus |access-date=March 18, 2006}}</ref> The name ''Eschrichtius gibbosus'' is sometimes seen; this is dependent on the acceptance of a 1777 description by Erxleben.<ref>{{Harvnb|Erxleben|1777|p=610}} (''Balaena gibbosa'')</ref>

=== Taxonomic history ===
A number of 18th century authors<ref>E.g. {{Harvnb|Erxleben|1777|pp=610–611}}; {{Harvnb|Anderson|1746|p=201}}; {{Harvnb|Brisson|1762|p=221}}</ref> described the gray whale as ''[[Balaena]] gibbosa'', the "whale with six bosses", apparently based on a brief note by {{Harvnb|Dudley|1725}}:<ref name="Barnes-McLeod">{{Harvnb|Barnes|McLeod|1984|pp=4–5}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The Scrag Whale is near a kin to the Fin-back, but instead of a Fin upon his Back, the Ridge of the Afterpart of his Back is cragged with half a Dozen Knobs or Nuckles; he is nearest the right Whale in Figure and for Quantity of Oil; his Bone is white, but won't split.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dudley|1725|p=258}}</ref>}}

The gray whale was first described as a distinct species by {{Harvnb|Lilljeborg|1861}} based on a subfossil found in the brackish [[Baltic Sea]], apparently a specimen from the now extinct north Atlantic population. Lilljeborg, however, identified it as "''Balaenoptera robusta''", a species of [[rorqual]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lilljeborg|1861|p=39}}</ref>  {{Harvnb|Gray|1864}} realized that the rib and scapula of the specimen was different from those of any known rorquals, and therefore erected a new genus for it, ''Eschrichtius''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gray|1864|p=351}}</ref> {{Harvnb|Van Beneden|Gervais|1868}} were convinced that the bones described by Lilljeborg could not belong to a living species but that they were similar to fossils that Van Beneden had described from the harbour of [[Antwerp]] (most of his named species are now considered [[Nomen dubium|nomina dubia]]) and therefore named the gray whale ''Plesiocetus robustus'', reducing Lilljeborg's and Gray's names to synonyms.<ref>{{Harvnb|Van Beneden|Gervais|1868|pp=290–291}}</ref>

[[Charles Melville Scammon]]  produced one of the earliest descriptions of living Pacific gray whales,{{sfn|Scammon|1874}} and notwithstanding that he was among the whalers who nearly drove them to extinction in the lagoons of the [[Baja California Peninsula]], they were and still are associated with him and his description of the species.<ref>{{Harvnb|Scammon|1874|loc=''The marine mammals of the north-western coast of North America''}}</ref>  At this time, however, the extinct Atlantic population was considered a separate species (''Eschrischtius robustus'') from the living Pacific population (''Rhachianectes glaucus'').<ref>{{Harvnb|Bryant|1995|pp=857–859}}</ref>

Things got increasingly confused as 19th century scientists introduced new species at an alarming rate (e.g. ''Eschrichtius pusillus'', ''E. expansus'', ''E. priscus'', ''E. mysticetoides''), often based on fragmentary specimens, and taxonomists started to use several generic and specific names interchangeably and not always correctly (e.g. ''Agalephus gobbosus'', ''Balaenoptera robustus'', ''Agalephus gibbosus'').  Things got even worse in the 1930s when it was finally realised that the extinct Atlantic population was the same species as the extant Pacific population, and the new combination ''Eschrichtius gibbosus'' was proposed.<ref name="Barnes-McLeod" />