But on Monday a small group of scientists and cultural experts in New Zealand clustered around a near-perfectly preserved spade-toothed whale hoping to decode decades of mystery. The list of what scientists don’t know about spade-toothed whales is longer than what they do know. A rare spade-toothed whale washed ashore on New Zealand's south island in July. It’s thought that spade-toothed whales live in the vast Southern Pacific Ocean, home to some of the world’s deepest ocean trenches. Beaked whales are the ocean’s deepest divers for food, and the spade-toothed may rarely surface, adding to its mystery.

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Persons: ”, Anton van Helden, Van Helden, they’ve, don’t, van Helden, Chile’s Robinson, Tumai Cassidy, Rūnanga, “, ” Cassidy, Joy Reidenberg Organizations: New Zealand Department of Conservation, Getty, Department of Conservation, Māori, Southern, Icahn School of Medicine Locations: New Zealand, —, New, AFP, Dunedin, Zealand, Māori , New, Ocean, Mount Sinai, New York