Pygmy Right Whale Goes Under the Knife

May 6, 2008 -- In the wake of international buzz generated by a certain half-ton colossal squid last week, scientists and staff at The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa yesterday began the careful dissection of another rare marine specimen: a pygmy right whale.

Whale experts from around the world have convened at the museum for the event, which marks only the second time a major anatomical examination of a pygmy right whale has taken place. The first dissection was facilitated at the same museum in 1996.

"This is an incredible opportunity for Te Papa to host an international collaboration of leading whale scientists in an investigation of such a rare and unusual species from this region," said Anton van Helden, the museum's marine mammals collections' manager and leader of the project.

Already they've determined the male infant whale was riddled with at least 12 cookie-cutter shark bite marks, which don't appear to have caused its death. The whale was stranded in northern New Zealand waters, where it died of unknown causes. It was then sent to the museum by agreement of local Maori tribes and the country's Department of Conservation.

The researchers hope to solve at least two mysteries about this smallest baleen whale, which is most often found around New Zealand and southern Australia.

The first is how it fits into the whale family tree. Although the head of this species looks like a mini-version of a right whale head, it's not believed to be closely related to its much larger namesake.

There is no fossil record for pygmy right whales, which possess more ribs than any other whale species, despite the fact that they only grow to about 21 feet long. In comparison, right whales can grow to 50 feet, and it's not uncommon for blue whales to reach 80 feet. This little fellow was just 6.5 feet long when he died.

The other mystery is how this species vocalizes. Joy Reidenberg, a comparative anatomist from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, traveled to New Zealand for the dissection and has already begun to investigate the whale's larynx.

She explained to Discovery News that whale larynxes, like those of humans, generally have vocal cords that produce sound.