A mysterious five-meter creature washed up on the coast of New Zealand

In New Zealand, a carcass was found on the beach, presumably a dead whale, which turned out to be a representative of the rarest species. Scientists have never observed this creature alive before.

As reported by Phys.org , the carcass of a five-meter-long creature was washed up on a South Island beach near the city of Otago. It took specialists 10 days to identify him.

The National Agency for Nature Conservation eventually stated that the creature is presumably a shovel-toothed whale. It was possible to identify him by the shape of his skull, teeth and "beak". However, there was not enough comparative material.

Shovel-toothed whales are among the rarest in the world. No one has ever seen them alive. Over the past 150 years, the bones of these creatures have been found several times on the coasts of New Zealand and Chile.

But it was only in 2012 that scientists were able to observe a whole shovel-toothed whale for the first time, when two carcasses of such whales were discovered off the coast of New Zealand. So this time, scientists got a dead creature, but they hope that studying the carcass will shed new light on the biology of the evolution of this species.

So far, scientists do not know how many shovel-toothed whales live on earth, what they eat and even where they live. Judging by the finds of bones on the coasts of certain countries, these creatures live in some regions of the Pacific Ocean.

"We know very, very little, practically nothing about these creatures," says Hannah Hendricks, marine technical consultant at the Department of Conservation. "The discovery of this whale may lead us to some amazing discovery and provide the first information about these creatures."

But before that, it has yet to be confirmed that the found creature is indeed an elusive shovel-toothed whale. So far, researchers have no absolute confidence in this. If their guess is confirmed, then the found whale will become the first representative of its species whose condition will allow it to be dissected.

An autopsy will give clues about his diet and habitat. In addition, for the first time, scientists will have the opportunity to study the degree of kinship of this creature with other whales.

"Only six other shovel-toothed whales have ever been identified," says Hendricks, "and those that were found untouched on New Zealand beaches were buried before DNA analysis could have been performed to confirm their identification."

The beached creature has already been transported to the refrigerator for further investigation.