1601. The 1598 specimen was near Berkhey.

The sperm whale is one of the species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. He recognised four species in the genus Physeter. Experts soon realised that just one such species exists, although there has been debate about whether this should be named P. catodon or P. macrocephalus, two of the names used by Linnaeus. Both names are still used, although