Scientists Rejoice Over an 'Extraordinary' Whale

It's the world's rarest whale, with only seven of its kind ever spotted. Almost nothing is known about the enigmatic species. But on Monday, a small group of scientists and cultural experts in New Zealand clustered around a near-perfectly preserved spade-toothed whale hoping to decode decades of mystery. "I can't tell you how extraordinary it is," said a joyful Anton van Helden, a senior marine science adviser for New Zealand's conservation agency, who gave the spade-toothed whale its name to distinguish it from other beaked species. "It's unbelievable." Van Helden has studied beaked whales for 35 years, but Monday was the first time he has participated in a dissection of the spade-toothed variety. In fact, the study of the creature—which washed up dead on a New Zealand beach in July—is the first ever to take place, per the AP. None has ever been seen alive at sea.

• A real mystery: The list of what scientists don't know about spade-toothed whales is longer than what they do know. They don't know where the whales live, why they've never been spotted in the wild, or what their brains look like. They also don't know how this one died.

• Precedent: New Zealand is a whale-stranding hot spot, with more than 5,000 episodes recorded since 1840. Only six other spade-toothed whales have ever been found, but all those discovered intact were buried before DNA testing could verify their identification.
• History: The first spade-toothed whale bones were found in 1872 on New Zealand's Pitt Island. Another discovery was made at an offshore island in the 1950s, and the bones of a third were found on Chile's Robinson Crusoe Island in 1986. DNA sequencing in 2002 proved that all three specimens were of the same species—and that it was distinct from other beaked whales. But researchers couldn't confirm whether the species was or wasn't extinct until 2010, when two whole spade-toothed whales, both dead, washed up on a New Zealand beach.
• The dissection: It will be quiet, methodical, and slower than usual, as it's being undertaken in partnership with New Zealand's Indigenous Maori people. Over the next week, researchers studying the 16-foot-long male hope to solve some of the mystery. "There may be parasites completely new to science that just live in this whale," said van Helden. "Who knows what we'll discover?" More here.

(More whales stories.)