Pygmy right whale

The pygmy right whale is the smallest of the baleen whales, growing just 6 to 6.5 meters long. It might be the last living relative of an ancient whale family once thought extinct. Unlike its name suggests, it shares more traits with gray whales and rorquals than with other right whales.

• Weighs between 3,000 and 3,500 kilograms—about as heavy as two small cars.
• First described scientifically in 1846 by John Edward Gray.
• Its closest relatives might be cetotheres, whales believed extinct until 2012.