Akishima whale

Akishima whale; Temporal range: Early Pleistocene c. 1.77–1.95 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Infraorder:	Cetacea
Family:	Eschrichtiidae
Genus:	Eschrichtius; Gray, 1864
Species:	E. akishimaensis
Binomial name
	Eschrichtius akishimaensis; Kimura, Hasegawa and Kohno, 2017

Eschrichtius akishimaensis, described in 2017, is one of two species, with the modern day gray whale, of the genus Eschrichtius, and is the first and only fossil species of the genus, dating to around 1.77–1.95 million years ago (mya) in the Early Pleistocene. The bones were first found in 1961 by a father and son, Masato and Yoshio Tajima, in a riverbed in Akishima, Tokyo, lending it a nickname the Akishima whale, and put into storage at the National Museum of Nature and Science until it was transferred to Gunma Museum of Natural History to be studied. The skeleton consists of a skull, neck vertebrae, thoracic vertebrae, lumbar vertebrae, tail vertebrae, chevrons, ribs, and arm bones, and has a total length of about 12 metres (39 ft). The discovery has generated local enthusiasm in the city, having both a Kujira matsuri (whale festival) and a Kujira Park (Whale Park) in its honor, and plans for a life-size replica skeleton in a new educational facility to open March 2020.[1]

References

Kimura, T.; Hasegawa, Y.; Kohno, N. (2017). "A New Species of the Genus Eschrichtius (Cetacea: Mysticeti) from the Early Pleistocene of Japan". Paleontological Research. 22 (1): 1–19. doi:10.2517/2017PR007.

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[1] Kimura, T.; Hasegawa, Y.; Kohno, N. (2017). "A New Species of the Genus Eschrichtius (Cetacea: Mysticeti) from the Early Pleistocene of Japan". Paleontological Research. 22 (1): 1–19. doi:10.2517/2017PR007.