Balaenidae is the whale family that includes right whales and the bowhead whale.
It is a family of baleen whales, or mysticetes, whose living members belong to two genera: Balaena, containing the bowhead whale, and Eubalaena, containing the three recognized right-whale species. These whales are generally large, thick-bodied filter feeders with broad heads and long baleen plates.
The classification has a long history. Carl Linnaeus originally grouped bowheads and right whales together in 1758, but later anatomical and genetic research established that they represent separate genera within the same family. The name “right whale” is historical: whalers considered these slow, buoyant, surface-feeding whales the “right” ones to hunt.
A common mix-up is Balaenopteridae, the rorqual family that includes blue, fin, humpback, and minke whales. Rorquals have expandable throat grooves, whereas balaenids lack those long ventral pleats and typically feed by skimming prey through the water.