Why Evolution Is True

I’ve gotten this from several readers, so thanks to all. According to The Province and several other sources, a defunct spade-toothed beaked whale and her calf (Mesoplodon traversii) washed up on the shores of New Zealand in 2010 and have just been identified as the world’s rarest whale in a new paper in Current Biology(full disclosure: I’m in Mexico and haven’t read the paper. The link is below but you’ll get only the abstract for free.)

Apparently the species was originally described from just a few skull and jaw fragments, but a fleshed-out specimen had never been seen until the pair washed ashore in 2010. Those individuals, however, were misidentified as Gray’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon grayi), and buried. But DNA testing on saved tissue specimens now confirms that the carcasses were indeed those of the spade-toothed beaked whale, since the unearthed skeletal remains are similar…

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