Discovery of new marine species

Revealing once again how little we know about our oceans' inhabitants, researchers announced discovery of two new marine species, including a Dwarf Killer Whale in Antarctica and a new species of beaked whale in the tropical pacific. Loren Coleman has more over at Cryptomundo. From one of his posts about these animals:

The oceans hold many natural history treasures and wonders. New animals are being discovered at a faster rate from the seas than in freshwater or on land. But these finds from the marine environment often get little attention from Homo sapiens versus, say, a new giant peccary or a new monkey.

Overnight, famed marine biologist Bob Pitman shared with me breaking news about several new marine mammal species. The news will not get as much of a read as a fuzzy picture of a land mammal from the woods of Pennsylvania or of a rapid moving otter-like animal videotaped in Loch Ness. That’s a darn shame.

Link to "First Live Sightings of Shepherd’s Ziphiid," Link to "New Species of Tropical Pacific Beaked Whale?," Link to "Dwarf Killer Whale Discovered in Antarctica"

• [agnot]

  I love newness. Hope somebody tells these beautiful creatures about their newness!

• [Beanolini]

  It’s a bit disingenuous to describe this as ‘discovery of new species’. As the articles state, it’s not that the the beaked whale and dwarf killer whale have never been seen before, just that certain populations have been split off into new taxa, the beaked whale by DNA analysis, and the killer whale by morphology.

  The dwarf killer whale species were actually proposed in the early 1980s, the new research is just adding evidence for their species status.

  This is all just part of the ongoing process of taxonomy, it’s a little odd to be expected to get worked up about it.

  The news of the first live sighting of Shepherd’s Ziphiid is rather more exciting, though it isn’t a ‘new species’ either, as it was first described in 1937.

• [Flying Squid]

  I wish there were more BB posts like this. REAL cryptozoology is given a bad name by the bigfoot and loch ness monster hunters. I cringe every time I see them promoted. It’s doing a disservice to hard-working scientists.

• [Nelson.C]

  So this year we lost a dolphin (Yangtze River Dolphin) and gained two whales.

• [V]

  and in other news, someone found a pig.

  http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8SOFBPO0&show_article=1&lst=1

• [dagfooyo]

  Sure, everybody’s excited about the new species, but what about the dwarves? Now there’s an entire species of whale whose purpose is to KILL them! Poor Gimli!

• [cczaphod]

  Nice story, but what do they taste like?

• [Flying Squid]

  Chicken of the Sea of course.