Right Whale: Genus of mammals

The head is hairier than most whales; up to 300 hairs are found on the tip of the lower jaw and 100 are on the upper jaw. There are also callosities (a series of horny growths) behind the blowhole, on the chin, above the eyes, on the lower lip, and on the rostrum (the beak-like upper jaw).

Right whales Temporal range: Miocene–recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Southern right whale breaching
Size compared to an average human
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Infraorder:	Cetacea
Family:	Balaenidae
Genus:	Eubalaena Gray, 1864
Type species
Eubalaena australis Desmoulins, 1822
Species
E. australis – Southern (Desmoulins, 1822) †E. ianitrix Bisconti, Lambert, and Bosselaers, 2017 E. glacialis – North Atlantic (Müller, 1776) E. japonica – North Pacific (Lacépède, 1818) †E. shinshuensis Kimura & Narita, 2007
E. glacialis ranges   E. australis range   E. japonica range
Synonyms
Template:Btname Template:Btname Template:Btname Template:Btname Template:Btname Template:Btname

Right whales are similar to bowhead whales, but smaller. These whales are rich in blubber and have 2 blowholes. The eyes are very small and lips are large. Right whales were named by whalers who considered them the "right" whales to hunt, since they were rich in blubber, they were easy to catch (they are relatively slow swimmers) and they floated after being killed.

Hunters needed the right whale's blubber for meat, because blubber could be boiled to make oil. The right whale's name came from hunters, who thought that they were the "right" whales to hunt. This was because they had lots of blubber. They were also easy to catch (because they were relatively slow swimmers) and they floated on the surface of the water after being killed. Because of these things, right whales are the most endangered of the great whales.