What is "pygmy right whale"

Right whale \Right" whale`\ (Zo["o]l.)

1. The bowhead, Arctic, or Greenland whale ( Bal[ae]na mysticetus), from whose mouth the best whalebone is obtained.

2. Any other whale that produces valuable whalebone, as the Atlantic, or Biscay, right whale ( Bal[ae]na cisarctica), and the Pacific right whale ( Bal[ae]na Sieboldii); a bone whale.

   Pygmy right whale (Zo["o]l.), a small New Zealand whale (Neobal[ae]na marginata) which is only about sixteen feet long. It produces short, but very elastic and tough, whalebone.

The pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata) is a member of the cetotheres, a family of baleen whales, which until 2012 were thought to be extinct; previously C. marginata was considered the sole member of the family Neobalaenidae. First described by John Edward Gray in 1846, it is the smallest of the baleen whales, ranging between and in length and 3,000 and 3,500 kg in mass. Despite its name, the pygmy right whale may have more in common with the gray whale and rorquals than the bowhead and right whales.

The pygmy right whale is found in the Southern Ocean in the lower reaches of the Southern Hemisphere, and feeds on copepods and euphausiids. Little is known about its population or social habits. Unlike most other baleen whales, it has rarely been subject to exploitation.