Photo of the beached spade-toothed whale (Courtesy of New Zealand Department of Conservation)

World's rarest whales seen by human eyes for the first time ever

11/6/2012

Back in 2010, folks in New Zealand stumbled upon the corpses of a female whale and her male calf washed up on Opape Beach on the nation's North Island. At the time, they had no idea they'd found a species that had never been seen by humans, first identified in 1872 only by bone fragments. Only after DNA analysis did scientists realize they had a pair of spade-toothed beaked whales, the rarest species of whale on Earth. Dr. Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland said it was the first time a full specimen of the 16-foot giants had ever been found. "New Zealand is surrounded by massive oceans," she said. "There is a lot of marine life that remains unknown to us." Creepy! [Source]

Click to see more on msnNOW.com, updated 24 hours a day.

most recent

Do you worry about what else may be lurking in the ocean?