Balaenula is an extinct genus of baleen whale species which lived during the Pliocene epoch of Europe and possibly North America.

[3][4] Balaenula is a small whale measuring within the range of 6–8 metres (20–26 ft) in length.

[5] Historically, Balaenula has been treated as a wastebasket taxon, so recent taxonomic revisions have resulted in only two named species of Balaenula to be known from the Pliocene epoch in the marine strata of Belgium and Italy, but the recognition of the type specimen as an individual is doubtful.

[4] An unnamed species previously described from Japan has been redescribed as a separate taxon Archaeobalaena dosanko.

The whale's skull was excavated from the limestone outcropping by the state's Underwater Archaeology Branch, prepared, and permanently displayed at the Lake Waccamaw Depot Museum starting 2012.