 A specimen from the Late Pliocene of northern Italy, named ""Cetotherium" gastaldii" by  and renamed ""Balaenoptera" gastaldii" by , was identified as a basal eschrichtiid by who recombined it to "Eschrichtioides gastaldii".Fossils of Eschrichtiidae have been found in all major oceanic basins in the Northern Hemisphere, and the family is believed date back to the Late Miocene.Today, gray whales are only present in the northern Pacific, but a population was also present in the northern Atlantic before being driven to extinction by European whalers three centuries ago.