[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]
Residents of New Zealand, a frequent hotspot for wandering whales and dolphins, are used to finding large marine creatures along their shores. But what appeared on a beach in the south of the country earlier this month – about 4.8 meters long, with a distinctive color and separated teeth – was no whale.
Scientists believe it is the carcass of the world’s rarest whale that has never been documented alive.
Known as the spadetooth whale, Bahamonte mesoplodon, or Travers’s peak whale, there are only six other specimens of this species: skeletons and specimens of carcasses found over decades, more than 150 years ago. Until 2010, scientists didn’t even know what a whale looked like. Little is known about the species, such as how many whales there are, what they eat, and how they behave.
The body, which caught the attention of local authorities on July 4 near the mouth of the Tairee River in Otago, on the country’s South Island, represents an unprecedented opportunity. While scientists could dissect a specimen for the first time, it was quickly recovered and stored in a freezer.
“Everything we see will be new to science,” Anton van Helden, a marine species adviser to the New Zealand Department of Conservation and an expert on humpback whales, said in an interview on Tuesday.
Security company Advertising Found on Monday, samples of the whale have been sent for DNA testing to confirm its identity. But van Helden, who has studied the species for 35 years, said it was “100 percent certain” based on its distinctive coloration, the placement of its teeth and the shape of its mouth.
This species is a species of beaked whale, a mysterious type of mammal. Beaked whales dive in deep water.
In 2002, van Helden led a team of scientists that used three skeletal remains collected in New Zealand and Chile between the 1870s and 1990s to confirm that the spadetooth whale was a distinct species, some of which had been misclassified or overlooked.
The species was first identified in 1874 from a jaw and bicuspid teeth collected on Pit Island in the Chatham Archipelago, New Zealand. But since no specimens of this species were found, scientists misclassified it as another species of beaked whale called Laird’s beak whale.
A second specimen was collected in New Zealand’s White Bay in 1950, but it remained unidentified in a university museum for decades until it was accidentally discovered by van Heerden. Another skull was discovered on Robinson Crusoe Island, off Chile, and two New Zealand specimens were unknown, and it was determined in 1995 that the skull belonged to a new species.
Van Heerten and his team used DNA testing to determine that the three specimens belonged to the same species, and in 2002 they “resurrected” the spadetooth whale, he said. In 2010, a mother and her calf washed ashore in New Zealand—the first intact specimens known to scientists—but were misidentified and buried before they could be studied. However, they allowed scientists to describe what the whale looked like for the first time. Another isolation in New Zealand in 2017 helped confirm that explanation.
Before dissecting the whale’s frozen body, scientists must hold conversations with the local indigenous Maori people, who consider them sacred. A Defense Department statement said these conversations would take longer due to the rarity of the animals. Earlier this year, tribal leaders in New Zealand, Tahiti and the Cook Islands signed an agreement recognizing whales as legal persons.
If scientists can dissect the carcass, it could shed more light on their biology and how they differ from other beaked whales, van Heerden said. The contents of their stomachs can provide information about their diet and what parts of the ocean they live in.
“There’s a world of possibilities based on what we can find,” van Heerden said.
Yan Chuang A Times reporter in Seoul covers breaking news. Other works by Yan Zhuang
“Typical beer advocate. Future teen idol. Unapologetic tv practitioner. Music trailblazer.”