Stranded spade-toothed beaked whales in New Zealand in 2010

Peter Livingstone, New Zealand Department of Conservation

Rochelle Constantine, University of Auckland

The vast expanses of the South Pacific Ocean have, until recently, concealed the identity of the world's rarest whale, the spade-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon traversii). Based on the scarcity of records and the total absence of previous sightings, this species is the least known species of whale and one of the world's rarest living mammals. Two individuals of this species, previously known from only two skull fragments and a mandible, were recently discovered beachcast in New Zealand. Although initially misidentified, we have used DNA analysis to reveal their true identity. We provide the first morphological description and images of this enigmatic species. This study highlights the importance of DNA typing and reference collections for the identification of rare species.

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Data of two stranded individuals are represented as one observation.

The dataset has been updated over time as outlined below. Each entry includes the version number, release date, type of change, and a short description.

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID (created by OBIS-SEAMAP)
obs_date	31 December 2010
location	Opape, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
lat_s	37 deg 58
lon_s	177 deg 25
latitude	37.9775
longitude	177.418889
sp_obs	spade-toothed beaked whale
sp_scientific	Mesoplodon traversii
sp_tsn	ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	2
notes	female (5.3m) and male offsprin (3.5m)
collector	Peter Livingstone, New Zealand Department of Conservation; Rochelle Constantine, University of Auckland, New Zealand
geom