This is a handy reminder of hard it is to acquire a sample of a rare
widely distributed species, even if they are large. Recall that the
population of the Sasquatch most certainly approaches 50,000
individuals. That is good enough for occasional accidental sightings
but little else since that creature actively avoids contact.
This whale was never hunted and the actual population can not be
small. Most likely it is easily mistaken for something else.
At least now we have a real sample and can go for there. It is
clearly a creature of the southern oceans and likely numbers in the
thousands. It surely has been mistaken for something else.
World's rarest
whale seen for the first time
A whale that is almost unknown to science has been seen for the first time after two individuals—a mother and her male calf—were stranded and died on a New Zealand beach. A report in the November 6th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers the first complete description of the spade-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon traversii), a species previously known only from a few bones.
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." - Phys.Org
Scientists discover
world's rarest species of whale
Skeletons of beached
animals identified
By Nick Perry, The
Associated Press November 7, 2012
The spade-toothed
beaked whale is so rare that nobody has seen one alive, but
scientists have proof the species still exists.
Two skeletons were
identified as belonging to the species after a five-metre whale and
her calf beached themselves in New Zealand in 2010. Scientists hope
the discovery will provide insights into the species and into ocean
ecosystems.
It was almost a missed
opportunity, however, since conservation workers misidentified the
carcasses as a much more common type of whale and buried them.
In a paper published
Tuesday in the journal Current Biology, researchers from New Zealand
and the United States say of their discovery: "For the first
time we have a description of the world's rarest and perhaps most
enigmatic marine mammal."
Previously only three
skull fragments of the species had been found: in New Zealand in 1872
and in the 1950s and the last one 26 years ago on an island off
Chile. The males have broad, blade-like tusk teeth that give the
species its name. Both males and females have beaks which make them
resemble dolphins.
"This is pretty
fantastic," said Ewan Fordyce, a geology professor at the
University of Otago who specializes in the evolution of whales and
who was not involved in the research. "There would be few, if
any, mammalian species in the world that would be rarer. And we know
much more about panda bears and other iconic, rare animals."
The beached whales, an
adult and her three-metre male calf, were discovered on Opape Beach
on the North Island on New Year's Eve in 2010. Conservation workers
thought they were Gray's beaked whales and took tissue samples before
burying them about three metres under the sand.
Those samples ended up
at the University of Auckland where scientists did routine tests
about six months later. Rochelle Constantine, a co-author of the
paper, said she and her colleague Kirsten Thompson couldn't believe
it when the results showed the pair to be the rarest of whales.
"Kirsten and I
went quiet. We were pretty stunned," she said.
Further tests
confirmed the discovery. Constantine said they then retested about
160 samples taken from other stranded Gray's whales but didn't find
any more that had been misidentified.
This year, researchers
returned to the beach to exhume the skeletons.
Anton van Helden, who
manages the marine mammals collection for New Zealand's national
museum Te Papa, said it wasn't a straightforward task to find the
remains after so long and that the mother's skull, which was buried
shallower than the rest of the remains, washed out to sea. But they
were able to recover the rest of the skeletons.
"It's a hugely
significant find," said van Helden, a co-author of the paper.
He said it's
impossible to know why the whales came ashore although whales often
beach themselves when they become ill. He said almost nothing is
known about the species except they live in the South Pacific Ocean
and eat primarily squid.
Fordyce said it may be
possible to use the skeletons of the rare whales to reconstruct their
muscles and tissues and to find out more about how they live and die
and why they are so reclusive.
The scientists say the
discovery could also provide broader insights into the ocean's
complex ecosystems.
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