WORLD'S RAREST WHALES KILLED BY UNDERSEA EARTHQUAKE
On 31 December 2011, a whale mother and male calf were found dead on Opape Beach in the Bay of Plenty at the north end New Zealand's North Island. The seagulls had already pecked their eyes out by the time the park rangers arrive d . Although clearly in the beaked whale family—the most mysterious marine mammal family—scientists thought the pair were relatively well-known Gray's beaked whales. That is until DNA findings told a shocking story: the mother and calf were actually spade-toothed beaked whales ( Mesoplodon traversii ), a species no one had ever seen before. Scientists have known of the spade-toothed beaked whale for over 140 years. Scientifically known as Mesoplodon traversii , the species was named after Henry H. Travers, a New Zealand naturalist who collected a partial jawbone that was found on Pitt Island in 1872. Pitt Island is part of the Chatham Islands group situated about 800 miles downstream from the Bay of Plenty.A d...
