A New Species of Whale Has Been Discovered
A unique echolocation signal has been discovered by researchers recording whale songs in the southern ocean waters around Antarctica. This may belong to a previously unknown species of beaked whale, according to BBC reports. Beaked whales are the second largest family of cetaceans, but they are the most understood. They dive 1.8 miles below the surface.
They are also the only cetaceans known to use FM signals called unsweep pulses to echolocate and these are also signals appear to be species specific. So, a team led by Jennifer Trickey from Scripps institution of Oceanography filed these signals and used a hydrophone array towed behind a research vessel sailing near the South Scotia Ridge, South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, and Antarctic Peninsula.
