World’s Rarest Whale Seen In The Flesh For The First Time

06 Nov 2012 by Jasmine Stone in Animals, Nature, World

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This is one of two whales which may be the only fully-preserved specimens of its species ever seen by human kind.

Spade-toothed beaked whales were first discovered in 1872 when bone fragments were found on a remote Pacific island, but until now the species has remained entirely hidden from human view.

In the 140 years since they were first discovered, the only sign that the creatures’ continued existence lay in two partial skulls found in New Zealand in the 1950s and Chile in 1986.

The mother and calf, which washed up ashore on Opape Beach at the Northern tip of New Zealand in 2010 have only just been confirmed to be spade-toothed whales. The delay in identification of the whales is apparently owing to the world’s least efficient animal classification board, who took two whole years to get around to “routine” DNA analysis. Until now, the unlucky pair were thought to be Gray’s beaked whales.

Theories explaining the elusiveness of the spade-toothed whale suggest that the marine mammal may be exceptionally deep divers, rarely surfacing, and feeding mostly on small fish and squid in the deep of the pacific ocean.

And now you’re smarter than your friends.

[Source : Telegraph]

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