Scientists may have discovered a rare spade-toothed whale

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

A mysterious creature washed up on a beach in southern New Zealand earlier this month. And for biologists like Anton van Helden with New Zealand's Department of Conservation, it was almost like finding an alien on Earth.

ANTON VAN HELDEN: It's just super exciting because it's such a rare thing. It's a species we know almost nothing about.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

It's some sort of whale, that much we know. And though van Helden is still waiting on the DNA analysis, the Department of Conservation announced this week that it may be one of the rarest whales in the world, a species that has never been seen alive at sea - the elusive spade-toothed whale.

VAN HELDEN: In a way, it looks like an oversized dolphin, with a long beak, with tiny flippers. So in this case, it's got little flippers that tuck in alongside its body, almost into little pockets on the side of its body. It actually has two tusk teeth either side of the lower jaw, and that's really characteristic.

DETROW: Van Helden says on July 4, a surfer was checking out the local waves on a surf cam and saw this thing lying on the sand. He alerted conservation authorities, who then rushed the carcass into a freezer to preserve it.

VAN HELDEN: Now, this is the seventh record of this species anywhere in the world. And this is the first time, really, that we're afforded an opportunity to explore, to look at the animal in greater detail.

SHAPIRO: That's because it's the first time scientists will be able to dissect an intact specimen rather than looking at bones. Van Helden says they want to study its digestive tract, its reproductive organs, how it makes sound.

VAN HELDEN: All of it is new (laughter). So I feel like, to do justice to the animal, we want to be able to describe everything.

DETROW: Before they do any of that, the scientists are seeking permission from the local Maori people, for whom whales have a strong cultural significance. But if given their blessing to proceed, van Helden says this specimen could offer a rare glimpse into the life and behavior of spade-toothed whales.

SHAPIRO: And it's a reminder, he says, of all the scientific mysteries still swimming around out at sea.

(SOUNDBITE OF TODD TERJE'S "PREBEN GOES TO ACAPULCO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.