This planet has such diversity of life, most of it isn't even catorgorised. Plants and insects are obviously in this although most mammals are known. When it comes to sea life, creatures near the shore are quite well known, but get out into oceans, especially in the deep blue sea, and man is 'all at sea' so to speak. It is difficult and expensive to explore deep water, where it is dark and the pressure great.
Therefore, when two whales - a mother and calf - were washed up on a beach in New Zealand in 2012, it wasn't considered too significant. NZ has a culture of notifying the Department of Conservation, who duly come out and sort it. In this case that involved tissue samples and burial. However, when the samples were analysed they were done again and again to make sure the readings were correct. This was the DNA of a very rare and basically unknown whale. The bodies were quickly exhumed for further examination.
These were spade toothed whales, a deep sea whale that rarely come to the water's surface and are not seen by coastal areas. The fact they got to be washed up on a NZ beach is quite exceptional. This will be a find of great interest to biologists. It reminds us that our 'advanced' society has so much to learn about this planet we call earth.
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