South Australian Museum researchers confounded by mysterious teeth previously unseen in beaked whales
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| Photograph: South Australian Museum |
Snday 15 May 201604.08 BSTLast modified on Sunday 15 May 201605.22 BST
Sientists believe they have an uncovered an evolutionary throwback in a rare deep ocean whale that washed ashore on a South Australian beach.
The beaked whale, found dead on Waitpinga beach in February, confounded examiners from the South Australian Museum who discovered two mysterious teeth previously unseen in that family of deep diving mammals.
Appeals to museum colleagues across the world, including at the renowned Smithsonian Institute in the US, have yielded no answers on the vestigial fangs, which are small and pointy.
The ABC reported the teeth are not believed to be a deformity but an evolutionary throwback, or a trait that reappears after generations.
South Australian Museum senior researcher Catherine Kemper told the ABC that the teeth, which defied the known norm in female whales by erupting above the jawline, were “very odd … something I had never seen before”.
“My mind was thinking, ‘Do we have something new here?’,” Kemper said.
Researcher Catherine Kemper told the ABC that the teeth, which defied the known norm in female whales by erupting above the jawline, were ‘very odd’. Photograph: South Australian Museum
After the whale skull was stripped clean, the museum’s collections manager, David Stemmer, yanked the tooth and was surprised to find the larger tooth of a Hector’s beaked whale underneath.
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