Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand identified for the first time an exceedingly rare mammal, the spade-toothed beaked whale.
In the November issue of Current Biology, Rochelle Constantine, Kirsten Thompson, C. Scott Baker, Anton van Helden, Selina Patel1, and Craig Millar sighted for the first time the least known species of whale and one of the world’s rarest living mammals.
“It was very exciting. These animals are only known from three skull fragments; we didn’t know if the species was still extant or didn’t exist anymore,” described Constantine.
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