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Science

New Species of Whale Discovered 38

Posted by timothy from the it-was-in-with-the-coats dept.
dlesko writes: "Scientists have discovered a new species of whale, a startling find made through DNA analysis of some of the marine mammals that washed ashore in California over the past three decades."
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New Species of Whale Discovered More

New Species of Whale Discovered

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  • How did we miss this guy? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Twice the size of the average dolphin and beaching themselves on the coast of California, how did this slip past researchers for this many months?

    Do they taste good?

  • Here be whales. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Perdo ( 151843 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2002 @10:51PM (#3314134) Homepage Journal
    Where be my harpoon?

    That night, in the mid-watch, when the old man - as his wont at intervals - stepped forth from the scuttle in which he leaned, and went to his pivot-hole, he suddenly thrust out his face fiercely, snuffing up the sea air as a sagacious ship's dog will, in drawing nigh to some barbarous isle. He declared that a whale must be near. Soon that peculiar odor, sometimes to a great distance given forth by the living sperm whale, was palpable to all the watch; nor was any mariner surprised when, after inspecting the compass, and then the dog-vane, and then ascertaining the precise bearing of the odor as nearly as possible, Ahab rapidly ordered the ship's course to be slightly altered, and the sail to be shortened.

    The acute policy dictating these movements was sufficiently vindicated at daybreak, by the sight of a long sleek on the sea directly and lengthwise ahead, smooth as oil, and resembling in the pleated watery wrinkles bordering it, the polished metallic-like marks of some swift tide- rip, at the mouth of a deep, rapid stream.

    "Man the mast-heads! Call all hands

  • strange reporting (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rjamestaylor ( 117847 ) <rjamestaylor@gmail.com> on Tuesday April 09, 2002 @11:43PM (#3314347) Journal
    Why is it that a story about a new species of whale does not tell us what the new species' name is, what the similar species name is or what factors of the DNA distinguish the two from each other, yet we're treated to a number of sentences about "even off the coast of California" we don't know everything, and "even from these big animals everyone loves" we don't know everything.

    It's funny; I started out reading the article to find out something I didn't know and instead was told something I already knew - that I don't know everything.

    It's enough to make me swear off popular reporting of scientific stories.

    • Re:strange reporting (Score:4, Informative)

      by nucal ( 561664 ) on Wednesday April 10, 2002 @04:53AM (#3315083)
      Boy, that story was wafer-thin.

      This is an abstract [la.ca.us] of what looks like a comparable study done with dolphins. Most of the original classification of species was done using fairly gross comparisons - almost to the level of "are they basically the same shape?" (sympatric morphotypes). What Heyning's group is doing is to compare the DNA sequence of a elements from a mitochondrial gene, cytochrome b, isolated from different dolphins or whales. Mitochondrial DNA is unique, in that it does not mix with nuclear DNA and is only transmitted to offspring from the mother, not the father. This means that since different species do not interbreed, species specific differences in mitochondrial DNA sequences will be more pronounced than in the more "typical" gene sequence. By grouping individual animals by mitochondrial DNA sequences, they can then use this to go back and identify subtle differences in physiology that you otherwise couldn't do with the small subpopulation of beached whales.

      A similar approach has been used to analyze human evolution [sciam.com], among other things.

        • What Heyning's group is doing is to compare the DNA sequence of a elements from a mitochondrial gene, cytochrome b, isolated from different dolphins or whales. Mitochondrial DNA is unique, in that it does not mix with nuclear DNA and is only transmitted to offspring from the mother, not the father. This means that since different species do not interbreed, species specific differences in mitochondrial DNA sequences will be more pronounced than in the more "typical" gene sequence. By grouping individual animals by mitochondrial DNA sequences, they can then use this to go back and identify subtle differences in physiology that you otherwise couldn't do with the small subpopulation of beached whales.
        Reporterette: Pause, blink and and stare vacantly. At last offer up, perkily --

        Wow, we really don't know all there is to know about our big California-coast visiting friends, do we?

    • Why is it that a story about a new species of whale does not tell us what the new species' name is,

      "New Whale"

      what the similar species name is

      "Classic Whale"

      or what factors of the DNA distinguish the two from each other

      gaca - tcag - gacc - caga - ttag - cacg - ggat - ttcg - gcta - aacc - tatc - ccag - gccg - agac - gacc - caga - tcag - gacc - tatc - ccag - gcaa - aacc - tatc - ccag - gccg - agac - gacc - caga - tcag - gacc - tatc - ccag - gcaa - tcag

      Glad I could help.
  • I suppose the Japs will have to go out and catch a few thousand of them for "research purposes"
  • "It's clear that even for whales, these large animals everyone loves, there's a lot we don't know,. . . Scientists based the last identification of a new species of beaked whale, in 1991, in part on specimens found for sale in a fish market in Peru."

    The Japanese especially love whales, that's why they are always undertaking 'scientific studies [about.com]' of whale populations, which (totally coincindentally) results in having to sell the meat of the studied whales for local consumption in Japan. Considering that technology exist to remove miniscule DNA samples from the whales to study their popluation and migration patterns, one has to wonder why the Japanese instead choose to kill the animals they are trying to learn about.

    There was a massive campaign in the US when it discovered dolphins were being killed by tuna fisherman, and protests led to labelling tuna as tuna as 'Dolphin Safe'. What we need now is a world-wide campaign to to label TVs, cars, and audio systems as being made in countries where Whale is not on the menu.

    • No Shit.

      You think that's bad... I saw a show on PBS about someones travels across vietnam. In many villages there is an animal market which stocks THOUSANDS of different species, for food and "medicine." Of course, many were endangered.

      I'm sorry, but the more rare an animal is the less likely I am going to want to eat it. I'm sticking with chickens, pigs and cows, myself. I just don't understand the appeal of "rare delicacies." Maybe someone can explain this cultural difference too me.

      • Did you hear of the researchers who were buying random samples of a supposed legal meat and then testing the DNA to find that it could be pretty much any animal whose meat looked remotely similar.

        And the difference is poverty and population density. You should look at a map and population figures sometime, you'll find that the US is quite large on a per person basis.

        t.

      • And now for that crack about eating anything that moves, it's better than you whites who'll fuck anything. Or stick it up your ass.
      • I'm sticking with chickens, pigs and cows, myself. I just don't understand the appeal of "rare delicacies." Maybe someone can explain this cultural difference too me.

        Of course, to a lot of people around the world, your insistence on eating Pork would be considered disgusting, dirty, etc. etc.
      • It's mostly that these animals are not eaten because they are rare, but because they are tasty (or supposedly have healing or "up-lifting" powers). They usualy are close to extinction because they are sought after.
  • Certain species of whales may be among the most intelligent species on the planet. For one thing, they aren't responsible for global warming but are perfectly placed to take advantage of it. Second, they exist nearly perfectly at the top of their respective food chains, as in nothing eats them (apart from the occasional Japanese that is.) Third, they spend a good portion of their time goofing around (as in they don't have to put in hours a day in an office cube.)

  • Interesting... Click this Link [suite101.com]to see it.
  • Let's clone the whale! And perform genetic engineering on the poor creature, i don't know mabye mix it's genes with a killer whale!? this post was sarcastically reflecting the knee jerk reaction many of us now have to cloning/geneticizing anything and everything.

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