The world's rarest whale species - the spade-toothed beaked whale which remained a mystery to scientists for over 100 years has been spotted for the first time on a beach in the Pacific Ocean.
‘This is the first time a spade-toothed beaked whale has been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them,’ said lead scientist Dr Rochelle Constantine.
‘It's incredible to think that, until recently, such a large animal was concealed in the South Pacific Ocean and shows how little we know about ocean biodiversity,’ Constantine said.
Scientists used DNA evidence to prove that a mother and her male calf which stranded in New Zealand in late 2010 were the first animals of their kind ever seen.
Since the two animals are the only intact members of their species sighted, the spade-toothed beaked whale is the world's rarest whale.
The animals were initially misidentified as Gray's beaked whales, the most common beaked whale to strand in New Zealand.
However subsequent genetic analysis at The University of Auckland revealed that they were spade-toothed beaked whales.
‘This is a real New Zealand story it's all linked here, from the discovery of two of the bone fragments to the identification of the species and now the first sighting of the whales, said Constantine.
Until now the only evidence for the species' existence came from three skull and jaw fragments found around New Zealand and Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile.
The whale was discovered on Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands in 1872, but it wasn't until 2002 that scientists from The University of Auckland analysed DNA from the three skull fragments, recovered from museum archives, and realised that their genetic profiles were the same and did not correspond to any other known species.
‘This is the first time a spade-toothed beaked whale has been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them,’ said lead scientist Dr Rochelle Constantine.
‘It's incredible to think that, until recently, such a large animal was concealed in the South Pacific Ocean and shows how little we know about ocean biodiversity,’ Constantine said.
Scientists used DNA evidence to prove that a mother and her male calf which stranded in New Zealand in late 2010 were the first animals of their kind ever seen.
Since the two animals are the only intact members of their species sighted, the spade-toothed beaked whale is the world's rarest whale.
The animals were initially misidentified as Gray's beaked whales, the most common beaked whale to strand in New Zealand.
However subsequent genetic analysis at The University of Auckland revealed that they were spade-toothed beaked whales.
‘This is a real New Zealand story it's all linked here, from the discovery of two of the bone fragments to the identification of the species and now the first sighting of the whales, said Constantine.
Until now the only evidence for the species' existence came from three skull and jaw fragments found around New Zealand and Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile.
The whale was discovered on Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands in 1872, but it wasn't until 2002 that scientists from The University of Auckland analysed DNA from the three skull fragments, recovered from museum archives, and realised that their genetic profiles were the same and did not correspond to any other known species.