In 1963 a mysterious whale washed up on the beach in Sri Lanka . Since then , six other individual have been find in a similar personal manner with the latest sighting in 2009 on the shore of Desroches Island in the Seychelles . This uncommon whale has been officially described by lead research worker Merel Dalebout and has been print in the journalMarine Mammal Science .
The whale is about 4.5 meter ( 14.7 feet ) long and scar the twenty second support species ofbeaked giant . Though pick whales can be found in ocean piddle all over the world , there is not a peck that is actually love about them . They are deep divers and can rest underwater for around an hour , which makes them moderately elusive to researcher .
When the first specimen was identify 50 years ago , nautical biologist P.E.P ( Paulus ) Deraniyagala describe itMesoplodon hotaula , which translates to “ sharpen beak . ” The next individual was happen on a shore two years later . However , those research worker believed that the heavyweight , as well as the previous one , were not a new species at all . The tooth are shaped kind of like the leaves of a ginkgo Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , so the team deduced that both specimen were in reality members ofM. ginkgodens .
When the most recent individual washed ashore , the scientist were capable to use a tool that their predecessors could not : genetic analysis . They were able-bodied to get a complete hereditary sample . The older specimens did not have any preserved tissue paper to try , so the squad drill into their osseous tissue and analyzed the sherd .
As it sour out , Deraniyagala was good in his initial conclusion in 1963 and it was a previously unknown species . The genome was equate against six speciments ofM. ginkgodensto ensure that there would not be any further example of mistaken identity . The name bestowed by Deraniyagala was restored and the whales are once again known asM. hotaula .
Because peck whales are so rarely seen , there is not much entropy about their conservation . They seem to be fairly safe from human fundamental interaction , though analysis of blubber shows aprogressive increment of toxins .
