Balaenoptera, from the Latin balaena (whale) and pteron (fin), is a genus of Balaenopteridae, the rorquals, and contains eight extant species. The species Balaenoptera omurai was published in 2003. Balaenoptera is a diverse genus and comprises all but one of the extant species in its family - the other species is the humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae. This genus is known in the fossil records from the Neogene to the Quaternary (age range: from 13.65 to 0.0 million years ago).