THE NEW WHALE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1938, Page 7

THE NEW WHALE

WANGANUI SPECIMEN

"TASMACETUS SHEPHERDI"

(Special to the "Evcnlnn Post.")

WANGANUI, This Day

' About four years ago a small paragraph in a Taranaki paper regarding ,a whale about twenty feet long, stranded near Hawera, was noticed by a member of the Alexander Museum . staff.' The matter was brought to "the notice of Mr. Shepherd, the curator, ; and' of Mr. Hope Gibbons, chairman of ' the museum'board, and the result was , tpat Mr. ; Shepherd visited Hawera. 'He at once saw. that here was something unique, and he made arrangements for helpers to retrieve the carcass from the beach. The; 'flensing ■ had already been done by. Maoris. . When it is realised that the specimen had .been dead for at least a month, one can easily imagine that the work was far from pleasant. After the bones had been cleaned and disinfected . they were brought to the Alexander Museum, and a thorough study was made. No whale ever recorded agreed with this new specimen; the great size of the head, the formidable array of teeth, and many other points only properly appreciated by scientists convinced Mr. Shepherd that he had a treasure indeed. .. Of* course, the other museums in New Zealand were interested, and later, curiously enoughj a mandible was given to the Dominion Museum by Lady Kinsey, of Christchurch. It is without date or locality, and was probably received from some part of the South Island or the Chatham Islands. Dr. W. R. B. Oliver, Director of the Dominion Museum, was invited to "describe" it, and much correspondence was carried oh with museums in many parts of the world. Eventually a paper was read 'by him before the Science Congress at 'Auckland, last January, and the news aroused so much interest tiiatj many of the visitors made a special | trip to Wanganui to see the new specimen. The description and the photographs were sent to the Zoological Society, London. There the greatest authorities of the day agreed that "Tasmacetus shepherdi" was a new genus and species of beaked whale and published the story m the official P?The" Alexander Museum is very pleased that Mr. Shepherd's good work, will be immortalised in this name, ana that New Zealand students have given ; to the world a record of a previously unknown creature. • : - Of the 94 teeth, 54 were retneved, sufficient to set up the side view completely. The specimen is housed in ife own glass case, alongside a perfect specimen of Mesopoloden gray", aovhale of almost the same length, also retneved by' Mr. Shepherd from the coast near Wanganui.

A photograph of the skull of the whale is reproduced on this page. A summary of Dr. Oliver's paper on the specimen was given in "Nature Notes on this page last Saturday.