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| unranked_subordo = Cetacea | unranked_superfamilia = Mysticeti | familia = Balaenopteridae | genus = ''Megaptera'' | genus_authority = Gray, 1846 | species = ''M. novaeangliae'' | binomial = ''Megaptera novaeangliae'' | binomial_authority = Borowski, 1781 | range_map = Cypron-Range Megaptera novaeangliae.svg | range_map_caption = Humpback whale range | synonyms = * ''Balaena gibbosa'' Erxleben, 1777 * ''B. boops'' Fabricius, 1780 * ''B. nodosa'' Bonnaterre, 1789 * ''B. longimana'' Rudolphi, 1832 * ''Megaptera longimana'' Gray, 1846 * ''Kyphobalaena longimana'' Van Beneden, 1861 * ''Megaptera versabilis'' Cope, 1869 }} The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. An acrobatic animal known for breaching and slapping the water with its tail and pectorals, it is popular with whale watchers off the coasts of Australasia and the Americas. Males produce a complex song lasting 10 to 20 minutes, which they repeat for hours at a time. Its purpose is not clear, though it may have a role in mating. Found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to each year. Humpbacks feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth in the winter. During the winter, humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Humpbacks have a diverse repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble net feeding technique. Like other large whales, the humpback was and is a target for the whaling industry. Once hunted to the brink of extinction, its population fell by an estimated 90% before a moratorium was introduced in 1966. While stocks have since partially recovered, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution continue to impact the 80,000 humpbacks worldwide. == Taxonomy == }} |2= }} }} }} }} Humpback whales are rorquals (family Balaenopteridae), a family that includes the blue whale, the fin whale, the Bryde's whale, the sei whale and the minke whale. The rorquals are believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene. However, it is not known when the members of these families diverged from each other. Though clearly related to the giant whales of the genus ''Balaenoptera'', the humpback has been the sole member of its genus since Gray's work in 1846. More recently, though, DNA sequencing analysis has indicated the humpback is more closely related to certain rorquals, particularly the fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), and possibly to the gray whale (''Eschrichtius robustus''), than it is to rorquals such as the minke whales. If further research confirms these relationships, it will be necessary to reclassify the rorquals. The humpback whale was first identified as ''baleine de la Nouvelle Angleterre'' by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his ''Regnum Animale'' of 1756. In 1781, Georg Heinrich Borowski described the species, converting Brisson's name to its Latin equivalent, ''Balaena novaeangliae''. In 1804, Lacépède shifted the humpback from the family Balaenidae, renaming it ''Balaenoptera jubartes''. In 1846, John Edward Gray created the genus ''Megaptera'', classifying the humpback as ''Megaptera longipinna'', but in 1932, Remington Kellogg reverted the species names to use Borowski's ''novaeangliae''. The common name is derived from the curving of their backs when diving. The generic name ''Megaptera'' from the Greek ''mega-''/μεγα- "giant" and ''ptera''/πτερα "wing", refers to their large front flippers. The specific name means "New Englander" and was probably given by Brisson due the regular sightings of humpbacks off the coast of New England.〔 Genetic research in mid-2014 by the British Antarctic Survey confirmed that the separate populations in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans are far more distinct than previously thought. Some biologists believe that these should regarded as separate subspecies of humpback whales, and that they are all evolving independently. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Humpback whale」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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