What is the world's rarest whale?

Photo courtesy New Zealand Government

It's the spade-toothed beaked whale!!!

This whale was first named from a partial jaw washed up on Pitt Island in New Zealand in 1872. Since then the only live specimens of this species to be seen were a mother-calf pair that washed up on Opape Beach, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. They were finally distinguished from their other relatives through DNA analysis and a description only this month - November 2012. How amazing is that? 140 years since it was 'discovered' and no one has yet seen it alive in the wild!

Read more here: http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20120511-23834.html