Scientists first removed the rarest whale on Earth video
MOSCOW, 7 Mar — RIA Novosti. For the first time biologists were able to see and capture Remezova True rare toothed whale of the Earth, the existence of which some naturalists began to doubt in recent years, according to a paper published in the journal PeerJ.
The so-called remasuri of True’s (Mesoplodon mirus) were opened in 1913, the American zoologist Frederick TRU during travel in tropical and subtropical waters of the North Atlantic. They represent a very large whales with a length of 3.5−5 m, the distinguishing feature of which is the characteristic beak and only two teeth.
As told by Emma Carroll (Emma Carroll) from St. Andrews University in Scotland, all Renatovich gray whales whales are very rare and secretive animal, about whose lives we know almost nothing. Remasuri are True Champions in this field, even compared with neighbors over the past few years, scientists and sailors saw the whales only a few dozen times, and never been caught, had not studied them and recorded them on photo or video.
In the 80 years of the last century some naturalists began to talk about the fact that remasuri Labor actually may not exist or may represent two different species of cetaceans, as their alleged habitat is split in two half is too far. One of them is in the waters of the North Atlantic and the second in southern Indian ocean.
Carroll and her colleagues like to tell the scientists themselves lucky — in November 2012 contacted the residents of El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands and reported a strange beached whale. When the scientists arrived at the scene and saw the lost animal, they realized that they were incredibly lucky — they were the first oceanographers who managed to get a full body Mesoplodon mirus.
Studying the structure of the body of this whale, and its DNA allowed the team to Carroll to begin a planned search of these rare animals off the coast of the Canary Islands. Scientists not only confirmed that remasuri GWS exist, but also shot several of these animals in the video and got a detailed underwater photographs of live females and males of these marine mammals, as well as the first photos of their babies.
In particular, the comparison of DNA and photos of the whales showed that remasuri TRU genetically and anatomically different from other species of raimnazarov — Serve whales (Mesoplodon europaeus). In addition, the researchers found that the color of raimnazarov Labor can vary greatly from specimen to specimen, which probably hindered the observation of Mesoplodon mirus in the past.
Another interesting fact about their lives — back of some of the males were covered with unusual dark stripes of different length, thickness and width.
They, as scientists believe, are the scars that appeared on the back of their owners during fights for the attention of females.
The first photo and the DNA of these whales, as I hope Carroll and her colleagues, will help marine scientists to establish the exact habitat of these animals, understand if they are threatened with extinction and if they need protection from anglers and poachers.