Balaena is a genus of cetacean (whale) in the family Balaenidae. Balaena is considered a monotypic species, as it has only a single extant species, the bowhead whale (B . mysticetus). It was first described in 1758 by Linnaeus, who at the time considered all of the right whales (and the bowhead) as a single species. Historically, both the Balaenid... Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaena