Sowerby's Beaked Whale

Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens), also known as the North Atlantic/North Sea beaked whale, was the first mesoplodont whale to be described. James Sowerby, an English naturalist and artist, first described the species in 1804 from a skull obtained from a male that had stranded in the Moray Firth, Scotland, in 1800. He named it bidens, which derives from the two teeth present in the jaw, now known to be a very common feature among the genus.