New Zealand scientists dissect the world's rarest whale December 3, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Dec 2, 2024
- 2 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
New Zealand scientists dissect the world's rarest whale.
New Zealand scientists on Monday began dissecting a whale considered to be the world's rarest. This species is so elusive that only seven specimens have ever been documented.
The dead sword whale washed ashore on New Zealand's South Island earlier this year, offering the chance to study a deep-water mammal that has never been seen alive.
The whale, which measured five meters (16.4 feet) in length, was pulled from the beach in July and has been in a special freezer ever since.
Anton van Helden, a whale expert, said it was the first time scientists had dissected a complete specimen with shovel teeth belonging to the beaked whale family.
“This is a remarkable and globally significant opportunity,” he said.
The dissection, which will last a week, will help fill in gaps about the whale's behavior, its diet, and even its basic anatomy.
“Beaked whales are the most enigmatic group of large mammals on the planet,” said Van Helden.
“They are deep divers that are rarely seen at sea, which presents real challenges for research into these marine animals.
“This is the rarest of the rare, only the seventh known specimen worldwide, and the first opportunity we've had to carry out a dissection like this.”
New Zealand's conservation department said the sword whale was the “rarest whale in the world.”
The species was first described in 1874 from just a lower jaw and two teeth collected in the Chatham Islands, off the east coast of New Zealand.
This sample, together with the skeletal remains of two other specimens found in New Zealand and Chile, allowed scientists to confirm the existence of a new species.
A few specimens have been found, and there have been no live sightings, the sword-toothed whale is classified as “data deficient” by New Zealand's Threat Classification System.
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