Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 128, August 2015, pp. 1-18. | Page 5

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Prof. Dr. Norman Ali Bassam Khalaf-von Jaffa standing beside of the Skeleton of the 24meters Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) which stranded on the Kazma (Kadmah)
coast in Kuwait in 1963 and is displayed at the Educational Science Museum in Kuwait.
Photo by: Nora Norman Ali Khalaf. 24.06.2014.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50022881@N00/14383688567/

Taxonomy: Blue whales are rorquals (family Balaenopteridae), a family that
includes the humpback whale, the fin whale, Bryde's whale, the sei whale, and
the minke whale. The family Balaenopteridae is believed to have diverged from
the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Oligocene
(28 Ma ago). It is not known when the members of those families diverged from
each other (Wikipedia).
The blue whale is usually classified as one of eight species in the genus
Balaenoptera; one authority places it in a separate monotypic genus, Sibbaldus, but
this is not accepted elsewhere. DNA sequencing analysis indicates that the blue
whale is phylogenetically closer to the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) and
Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei) than to other Balaenoptera species, and closer
to the humpback whale (Megaptera) and the gray whale (Eschrichtius) than to the
minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata and Balaenoptera bonaerensis). If further
research confirms these relationships, it will be necessary to reclassify the
rorquals (Wikipedia).
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 128 – August 2015