The pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) is one of two extant species in the family Kogiidae in the sperm whale superfamily. They are not often sighted at sea, and most of what is known about them comes from the examination of stranded specimens (from Wikipedia entry). This transcriptome data is from a sample of a female individual found on Bolsa Chica State Beach, California, procured by Malena Berndt and Alissa Deming and coordinated by Phil Morin to generate transcriptome data for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Sequencing was conducted at the Vertebrate Genome Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Erich D. Jarvis, Giulio Formenti, and Jennifer Balacco.