World Rarest Whale Species found in Pacific Ocean

The world's rarest whale species - the spade-toothed beaked whale was spotted for the first time by scientists of New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean.

The Spade-toothed beaked whales were first discovered in 1872 when bone fragments of rarest whale species were found on a remote Pacific island.

Till date the rarest species had remained entirely hidden from human view. This is the first time that the species was ever seen as a complete specimen.

The discovered species was found on 31 December 2010 in a form of a female whale (5.3 metres) and male calf (3.5 metres) which were stranded and later died on Opape Beach in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
 
It was after their death that they were measured, photographed and tissue samples were taken by the Department of Conservation. A DNA typing was done on them and with further investigation a report on 6 November 2012 was published in the journal Current Biology.