This is a handy reminder of hard it is to acquire a sample of a rarewidely distributed species, even if they are large. Recall that thepopulation of the Sasquatch most certainly approaches 50,000individuals. That is good enough for occasional accidental sightingsbut little else since that creature actively avoids contact.
This whale was never hunted and the actual population can not besmall. Most likely it is easily mistaken for something else.
At least now we have a real sample and can go for there. It isclearly a creature of the southern oceans and likely numbers in thethousands. It surely has been mistaken for something else.
World's rarestwhale seen for the first time
http://naturalplane.blogspot.ca/2012/11/just-facts-worlds-rarest-whale-medieval.html
Awhale that is almost unknown to science has been seen for the firsttime after two individuals—a mother and her male calf—werestranded and died on a New Zealand beach. A report in the November6th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers thefirst complete description of the spade-toothed beaked whale(Mesoplodon traversii), a species previously known only from a fewbones.
The discovery is the first evidence that this whale isstill with us and serves as a reminder of just how little we stillknow about life in the ocean, the researchers say. The findings alsohighlight the importance of DNA typing and reference collections forthe identification of rare species. "This is the first time thisspecies—a whale over five meters in length—has ever been seen asa 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-toothedbeaked whale was from three partial skulls collected from New Zealandand Chile over a 140-year period. It is remarkable that we knowalmost nothing about such a large mammal." - Phys.Org
Scientists discoverworld's rarest species of whale
Skeletons of beachedanimals identified
By Nick Perry, TheAssociated Press November 7, 2012
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Scientists+discover+world+rarest+species+whale/7509037/story.html
The spade-toothedbeaked whale is so rare that nobody has seen one alive, butscientists have proof the species still exists.
Two skeletons wereidentified as belonging to the species after a five-metre whale andher calf beached themselves in New Zealand in 2010. Scientists hopethe discovery will provide insights into the species and into oceanecosystems.
It was almost a missedopportunity, however, since conservation workers misidentified thecarcasses as a much more common type of whale and buried them.
In a paper publishedTuesday in the journal Current Biology, researchers from New Zealandand the United States say of their discovery: "For the firsttime we have a description of the world's rarest and perhaps mostenigmatic marine mammal."
Previously only threeskull fragments of the species had been found: in New Zealand in 1872and in the 1950s and the last one 26 years ago on an island offChile. The males have broad, blade-like tusk teeth that give thespecies its name. Both males and females have beaks which make themresemble dolphins."This is prettyfantastic," said Ewan Fordyce, a geology professor at theUniversity of Otago who specializes in the evolution of whales andwho was not involved in the research. "There would be few, ifany, mammalian species in the world that would be rarer. And we knowmuch more about panda bears and other iconic, rare animals."
The beached whales, anadult and her three-metre male calf, were discovered on Opape Beachon the North Island on New Year's Eve in 2010. Conservation workersthought they were Gray's beaked whales and took tissue samples beforeburying them about three metres under the sand.
Those samples ended upat the University of Auckland where scientists did routine testsabout six months later. Rochelle Constantine, a co-author of thepaper, said she and her colleague Kirsten Thompson couldn't believeit when the results showed the pair to be the rarest of whales.
"Kirsten and Iwent quiet. We were pretty stunned," she said.
Further testsconfirmed the discovery. Constantine said they then retested about160 samples taken from other stranded Gray's whales but didn't findany more that had been misidentified.
This year, researchersreturned to the beach to exhume the skeletons.
Anton van Helden, whomanages the marine mammals collection for New Zealand's nationalmuseum Te Papa, said it wasn't a straightforward task to find theremains after so long and that the mother's skull, which was buriedshallower than the rest of the remains, washed out to sea. But theywere able to recover the rest of the skeletons.
"It's a hugelysignificant find," said van Helden, a co-author of the paper.
He said it'simpossible to know why the whales came ashore although whales oftenbeach themselves when they become ill. He said almost nothing isknown about the species except they live in the South Pacific Oceanand eat primarily squid.
Fordyce said it may bepossible to use the skeletons of the rare whales to reconstruct theirmuscles and tissues and to find out more about how they live and dieand why they are so reclusive.
The scientists say thediscovery could also provide broader insights into the ocean'scomplex ecosystems.
Read more:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Scientists+discover+world+rarest+species+whale/7509037/story.html#ixzz2BYziK4Uk
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