The first autopsy of the world's rarest whale stunned scientists. Photo

After the first-ever autopsy of the world's rarest whale, scientists were stunned by incredible discoveries. During the research, scientists saw that the mammal has 9 stomach chambers and tiny rudimentary teeth on the upper jaw.

Until now, virtually nothing was known about spade-toothed whales, as only six specimens of these marine creatures have been confirmed to date, but no one has ever seen a single live one. However, the first autopsy of this whale has revealed new details of their anatomy, IflScience writes.

Department of Conservation (DOC) officers arrived to investigate a report of a dead whale that had washed ashore near the small fishing village of Taieri Maut. When they arrived, they were shocked. A five-meter male spade-toothed whale was lying in front of them.

"It's one of the most little-known large mammal species of our time," said Gabe Davis, head of coastal operations at DOC in Otago.

Dissection of a spade-toothed whale

This discovery was a rare and key opportunity to learn more about this species. After all, a complete specimen of a spade-toothed whale was found for the study.

"This whale was not only the first of its kind to be studied by science. But it was also the first time a local tribe in New Zealand worked with scientists to combine indigenous and Western knowledge systems to gain a better understanding of this whale and its behavior," said Rachel Wesley, one of the participants in the autopsy.

During the necropsy, the scientists saw that the shovel-toothed whales have tiny rudimentary teeth on their upper jaw.

According to experts, rudimentary structures such as this are considered remnants of evolution, demonstrating that they once served a higher purpose and there was no evolutionary pressure to lose this feature completely.

The reduced hindlimbs of whales are often shown as another example of rudimentary structures left over from when they shrank some 50 million years ago. Now the legs have shrunk to tiny remnants of thighs, scientists say.

Another interesting feature of the spade-toothed whale is its numerous stomach chambers – nine to be exact, the researchers say.

"In some of these stomachs, we found squid beaks and some squid eye lenses, some parasitic worms, and possibly some other parts of organisms," said DOC marine science advisor and beaked whale expert Anton van Helden.

"We also found interesting structures related to both feeding and sound production. Weighings, measurements, and descriptions were made for various muscles and organs to help us describe this species and make comparisons with related species. All of this adds up to new knowledge," the expert added.

Scientists emphasize that by learning more about shovel-toothed whales, they will be better prepared to preserve them in the future.

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