World's Rarest Whale Seen For The First Time

When two of the exceedingly rare spade-toothed whales washed up on a New Zealand shore, they were initially mistaken for the more common Gray’s beaked whales (pictured here).

Credit: Copyright: New Zealand Government

 

The discovery is the first evidence that this whale is still with us and serves as a reminder of just how little we still know about life in the ocean, the researchers say. The findings also highlight the importance of DNA typing and reference collections for the identification of rare species.

“This is the first time this species—a whale over five meters in length—has ever been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them,” says Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland. “Up until now, all we have known about the spade-toothed beaked whale was from three partial skulls collected from New Zealand and Chile over a 140-year period. It is remarkable that we know almost nothing about such a large mammal.”

The two whales were discovered in December 2010, when they live-stranded and subsequently died on Opape Beach, New Zealand. The New Zealand Department of Conservation was called to the scene, where they photographed the animals and collected measurements and tissue samples.

The whales were initially identified not as spade-toothed beaked whales but as much more common Gray’s beaked whales. Their true identity came to light only following DNA analysis, which is done routinely as part of a 20-year program to collect data on the 13 species of beaked whales found in New Zealand waters.

“When these specimens came to our lab, we extracted the DNA as we usually do for samples like these, and we were very surprised to find that they were spade-toothed beaked whales,” Constantine says. “We ran the samples a few times to make sure before we told everyone.”

The researchers say they really have no idea why the whales have remained so elusive.

“It may be that they are simply an offshore species that lives and dies in the deep ocean waters and only rarely wash ashore,” Constantine says. “New Zealand is surrounded by massive oceans. There is a lot of marine life that remains unknown to us.” 

Thompson et al.: “The World’s Rarest Whale.”

 

More stories:

 Grey Alien Filmed In Rain Forest, Black UFO Hovering Through Rain Forest In Brazil, Nov 2012. 

Silver UFO Seen Over New Orleans, Louisiana On Nov 3, 2012 

UFO Takes Out Jet Fighter, Giant UFO In New Zealand, UFO Fleet 

Elephant Imitates Human Speech, Hear Elephant Speak Korean 

10 Terrifying Near Nuclear Disasters 

Earthquake Strikes New Jersey, November 5, 2012 

This Changes Everything 

World’s Rarest Whale Seen For The First Time 

Volcanoes Growing In Indonesia, Measurements Taken By Satellite 

Massive Volcanic Eruption Puts Past Climate And People In Perspective 

Human Sixth Sense Confirmed By Scientists 

Ancient Catastrophes Caused By Heavenly Bodies, Testing The Velikovsky Chronology 

 Chris Rock – Message for White Voters 

Artificial Muscles Revolutionize Video Games 

Bizarre! Fish Has Heat Vision, Can See Infrared 

Testosterone Increases Honesty 

Obama Beats Romney In Bull Fight  

Contacts and sources:
Elisabeth Lyons
Cell Press