Kogiidae
Pygmy Sperm Whale
K. breviceps
Data DeficientGenus
Kogia
The two small sperm whales — pygmy and dwarf — which were treated as one species until the 1960s and may yet be more than two.
2
species
About Kogia
Kogia was long thought to contain a single species. The dwarf sperm whale was recognised as distinct in 1966, on a shorter head, a larger dorsal fin set nearer the middle of the back, and a different tooth count. Separating the two at sea remains difficult, and a proposed third species in the Atlantic, described from the dwarf sperm whale’s range in 2021, has yet to be widely accepted.
Both are undemonstrative animals of deep water beyond the continental shelf, slow at the surface and easily missed. Most specimens reach science as strandings, and the genus is disproportionately represented in stranding records worldwide relative to how rarely it is seen alive.
