World's Rarest Whale: Two Spade-Toothed Beaked Whales Seen for First Time [Photo]

A major discovery took place on a beach in New Zealand where the rarest whale in the world was spotted.

A pair of the two spade-toothed beaked whales of the Ziphiidae family were stranded and had died on Opape Beach on the North Island of New Zealand in December 2010, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The rare whales were first found in 2010 and have since been under the study of marine biologist who found that the pair were a 17-foot long mother and her 11-foot long calf. The species was first discovered in 1872 with bone fragments that were found on an island in the Pacific Ocean.

Rochelle Constantine, a marine biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said in a statement: "Up until now, all we have known about the spade-toothed beaked whale was from three partial skulls collected from New Zealand and Chile over a 140-year period. It is remarkable that we know almost nothing about such a large mammal. This is the first time this species has ever been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them."

When the whales were first seen on the beach, scientists first thought they were only common Gray's beaked whales. The New Zealand Department of Conservation photographed the animals and collected tissue samples. It was only after DNA samples were taken for analysis that the scientist figured out the true nature of what was found.

"When these specimens came to our lab, we extracted the DNA as we usually do for samples like these, and we were very surprised to find that they were spade-toothed beaked whales," Constantine said. "We ran the samples a few times to make sure before we told everyone."

As to why the whales have been so elusive, Constantine commented:  "It may be that they are simply an offshore species that lives and dies in the deep ocean waters and only rarely wash[es] ashore."

For more information on the findings, the Nov. 6 issue of Current Biology will feature a detailed report on the whales along with DNA analysis.