Department of Geology, University of Otago, 360 Leith Walk, PO Box 56, Dunedin, Otago 9016, New Zealand.
Proc Biol Sci. 2012 Dec 19;280(1753):20122645. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2645. Print 2013 Feb 22.
The pygmy right whale, Caperea marginata, is the most enigmatic of the living baleen whales (Mysticeti). Its highly disparate morphology and the virtual absence of a described fossil record have made it extremely difficult to place Caperea into a broader evolutionary context, and molecular and morphological studies have frequently contradicted each other as to the origins and phylogenetic relationships of the species. Our study of a wealth of material from New Zealand collections, representing a wide range of ontogenetic stages, has identified several new features previously unreported in Caperea, which suggest that the pygmy right whale may be the last survivor of the supposedly extinct family Cetotheriidae. This hypothesis is corroborated by both morphology-based and total evidence cladistic analyses, including 166 morphological characters and 23 taxa, representing all the living and extinct families of toothless baleen whales. Our results allow us to formally refer Caperea to Cetotheriidae, thus resurrecting the latter from extinction and helping to clarify the origins of a long-problematic living species.
侏抹香鲸（Caperea marginata）是现存须鲸目动物中最神秘的一种。它形态差异极大，而且几乎没有描述过的化石记录，这使得将侏抹香鲸置于更广泛的进化背景中变得极其困难，分子和形态学研究经常相互矛盾，无法确定该物种的起源和系统发育关系。我们对来自新西兰收藏的大量材料进行了研究，这些材料代表了广泛的个体发育阶段，发现了一些以前在侏抹香鲸中没有报道过的新特征，这表明侏抹香鲸可能是据称已灭绝的鲸偶蹄目家族的最后幸存者。这个假说得到了形态学和总证据系统发育分析的支持，包括 166 个形态特征和 23 个分类群，代表了所有现存和已灭绝的无齿须鲸科。我们的研究结果使我们能够正式将侏抹香鲸归为鲸偶蹄目，从而使后者免于灭绝，并有助于澄清一个长期存在问题的现存物种的起源。
