Article ID: 2022S001
On 28 February 2014, a dead baleen whale was stranded and found by residents on the east coast of Failaka Island, Kuwait. The specimen was a female with a total length of 14 m. After muscle and internal organ removal and sample collection, the remains of this animal were buried in situ. The Japanese authors of this paper visited Failaka Island to check the condition of the skeleton after about nine months since the stranding event. A total of 44 measurements, including condylobasal length, were made from the dorsal side of the skull. Skull length was 3.222 m, which represented 26.85% of the body length. The skull of the specimen possesses diagnostic characteristics of Bryde’s whale, such as the outer edge of the rostrum being rounded and flattened in dorsal and lateral views, respectively. The number of ribs were 13 on the left, and 12 on the right side. The skeleton was reburied to allow natural decomposition of the remaining soft tissue. As of 2022 we have not been able to excavate this skeleton, but we hope to do so in the near future and hope the specimen will be properly catalogued and permanently stored at some museum or institution in Kuwait.
