It is the whale rarest in the world, with only seven of its species ever sighted. Almost nothing is known about the enigmatic species. But on Monday, a small group of scientists and cultural experts in New Zealand They clustered around a nearly perfectly preserved saber-toothed whale in hopes of unraveling decades of mystery.
“I can’t tell you how extraordinary it is,” said a cheerful Anton van Helden, senior marine science advisor for New Zealand’s conservation agency, who gave the name to the saber-toothed whale to distinguish it from other whale species. “For me personally, it’s amazing.”
Van Helden has studied beaked whales for 35 years, but Monday was the first time he participated in a dissection of the saber-toothed variety. In fact, the careful study of the creature, which was found dead on a New Zealand beach in July, is the first to be carried out.
None have been seen alive at sea.
The list of what scientists don’t know about sabertooth whales is longer than what they do know. They don’t know where whales live in the ocean, why they have never been sighted in the wild, or what their brains are like. All beaked whales have different stomach systems and researchers don’t know how the sabertooth type processes its food. They also don’t know how this one died.
Over the next week, researchers studying the 5-metre-long male at an agricultural research center near the city of Dunedin hope to discover it.
“There may be parasites completely new to science that only live in this whale”said van Helden, excited by the opportunity to learn how the species makes sound and what it eats. “Who knows what we will discover?”
Only six other sabertooth whales have been found, but all of those discovered intact were buried before DNA testing could verify their identification.
New Zealand is a hot spot for whale strandings, with more than 5,000 episodes recorded since 1840, according to the Department of Conservation. The first saber-tooth whale bones were found in 1872 on New Zealand’s Pitt Island. 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.
The sequencing of DNA In 2002 he demonstrated that the three specimens were of the same species, and that it was distinct from other beaked whales. But researchers studying the mammal couldn’t confirm whether the species was extinct until 2010, when two complete saber-toothed whales, both dead, washed up on a New Zealand beach. But none had been studied before.
On Monday, the seventh of its kind, surrounded by scientists in white aprons measuring and photographing, appeared relatively undamaged, giving no clues to its death. The researchers pointed to cigar shark marks — normal, they said — and not the cause.
The dissection will be calm, methodical and slower than usual, because it is carried out in partnership with the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. For Māori, whales are taonga, a precious treasure, and the creature will be treated with the reverence accorded an ancestor.
Members of the local iwi, or tribe, will be present throughout the dissection and will be consulted at every step, allowing them to share traditional knowledge and observe customs, such as saying a karakia, a prayer, over the creature before the study begins.
“According to our beliefs and traditions, this whale is a gift from Tangaroa, deity of the ocean”said Tumai Cassidy from local Te Rūnanga Ōtākou village. “It is very important for us to respect that gift and honor the whale.”
The iwi will retain the whale’s jaw and teeth at the end of the dissection, before its skeleton is displayed in a museum. 3D printing will be used to replicate those parts, using a CT scan taken of the whale’s head this week.
“All of this builds a richer picture for that species, but it also tells us how it interacts with our oceans.”Cassidy said.
Sabertooth whales are believed to live in the vast South Pacific Ocean, home to some of the deepest ocean trenches in the world. Beaked whales are the ocean’s deepest divers in search of food, and sabertooth whales may rarely surface, adding to their mystery.
The scientists gathered Monday included some who had traveled from abroad to see the whale, which was stored in refrigeration after its discovery.
“What we’re interested in is not just how these animals died, but how they lived,” said Joy Reidenberg, a comparative anatomist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “By discovering how they live, we hope to find discoveries that we can apply back to the human condition.”