Bryde's Whale - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The taxonomy is poorly characterized. Three genetically distinct, candidate species/subspecies/morphologies, Bryde's whale B. brydei, Bryde's/Eden's whale B. edeni, and Omura's whale B. omurai, differentiate by geographic distribution, inshore/offshore preferences, and size. For at least two of the species, the scientific name B. edeni is common. Omura's whale, a pygmy, is only recently described and reaches only 11.5 m (38 ft).

In 1878, the Scottish zoologist John Anderson, first curator of the Indian Museum in Calcutta, described Balaenoptera edeni, naming it after the former British High Commissioner in Burma, Sir Ashley Eden, who helped obtain the type specimen. Eden's Deputy Commissioner, Major A.G. Duff, sent a Mr. Duke, one of his assistants, to Thaybyoo Creek, between the Sittang and Beeling rivers, on the Gulf of Martaban, where he found a 37-ft whale, which had stranded there in June 1871 after swimming more than twenty miles up the creek — it was said to have "exhausted itself by its furious struggles" to get free and "roared like an elephant" before finally expiring. Despite terrible weather, he was able to secure almost the entire skull as well as nearly all its vertebrae, along with other bones. These were sent to Anderson, who described the specimen, which was physically mature, as a new species. In 1913, the Norwegian scientist Ørjan Olsen, based on the examination of a dozen "sei whales" brought to the whaling stations at Durban and Saldanha, in South Africa, described Balaenoptera brydei, naming it after the Norwegian consul to South Africa Johan Bryde. In 1950, the Dutch scientist G.C.A. Junge, after comparing specimens of B. edeni and B. brydei with a 39-ft physically mature specimen that had stranded on Pulu Sugi, an island between Singapore and Sumatra, in July 1936, synonymized the two species into B. edeni (Anderson, 1878).