Scientists dissect the world’s rarest whale and find cause of death

Scientists suspect the first complete specimen of the world’s rarest whale died from head injuries, an expert said Friday.

The first dissection of a spade-toothed whale, a type of beaked whale, was completed last week after a careful study at a research center near the New Zealand city of Dunedin, locals leading the scientific team told Te Rūnanga Ōtākou in a statement from the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

In July, a nearly perfectly preserved 16-foot-long male was found on a South Island beach. It was the first fully documented specimen.

There have only been seven known sightings and never a live shovel-toothed whale.

New Zealand Conservation Authority’s beaked whale expert Anton van Helden said the whale’s broken jaw and bruises on its head and neck led scientists to believe head trauma may have caused its death.

“We don’t know, but we suspect that there must have been some kind of trauma, but what caused it is anyone’s guess,” van Helden said in a statement.

All species of beaked whales have different stomach systems, and researchers did not know how the spade-toothed species processes its food.

The scientific team found that the sample had nine stomach chambers containing remains of squid and parasitic worms, the statement said.

One of the more interesting finds were tiny tooth remains in the upper jaw.

“These small teeth embedded in the gums tell us something about their evolutionary history. It’s remarkable to see and it’s just another thing we had no idea about,” van Helden said.

“It is a week that I will never forget in my life, it is certainly a highlight and it is the beginning of storytelling around this beautiful animal,” added van Helden.

The section was also notable because scientists and curators worked with local Māori to incorporate indigenous knowledge and customs into every step of the process.

After the dissection, the local iwi, or tribe, retains the whale’s jawbone and teeth before its skeleton is displayed in a museum. Using 3D printing, the parts received from the iwi are recreated.

To Māori, whales are a taonga – a precious treasure – and the creature was treated with the reverence given to an ancestor.

According to the Department of Conservation, New Zealand is a hotspot for whale strandings. Since 1840, more than 5,000 incidents have been recorded.

The first spade-toothed whale bones were found on Pitt Island, New Zealand, in 1872. Another discovery was made on an offshore island in the 1950s, and the bones of a third were found on Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island in 1986.