Back in July, a rare whale washed onto the shore of a beach in New Zealand. The Spade-toothed whale was dead, which is the most common way for people to spot them. Only seven have ever been recorded and none have ever been seen alive at sea. The dead one that washed ashore in New Zealand offered researchers the chance to do something that has never been done before: dissect a spade-toothed whale.
The elusive 5-meter whale that looks like a long dark dolphin has remained a mystery to researchers for decades. Little is known about its habitat, behavior, or physiology. The scientific community doesn’t know anything about how it eats, what it eats, how it processes food, or what its brain looks like. They know beaked whales have different stomachs from regular whales, but does that apply to the spade-toothed whale? Well, they’re gonna cut that sucker open and find out.
The intricacies of the spade-toothed whale have eluded us since the 19th century when its bones were first identified. It was only in 2002 that DNA tests confirmed that the spade-toothed whale is a distinct species. For a while, researchers just assumed that no one had ever really seen one because the species had gone extinct. But then, in 2010, two dead ones washed ashore in New Zealand. For whatever reason, those were not dissected and studied. But now, the seventh one discovered in New Zealand back in July is going to be analyzed so we can better understand this mysterious creature.
But the researchers won’t be slicing and dicing this thing with a disturbing glee. On the contrary, researchers are working in partnership with New Zealand’s indigenous population, the Māori, for whom whales are such a precious treasure that they are referred to as a “taonga,” the Māori term for a treasured possession. When its dissection is done, the tribe will keep the jawbone and the teeth while the rest of that skeleton will be displayed in a museum. The parts that the tribe will keep will be scanned and 3D printed so they can be replicated later. The whale’s head will also be CT scanned so it can be digitally observed and preserved.
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