Spade-toothed whale
| Spade-toothed whale | |
|---|---|
| A beached male of the species named Ōnumia found in New Zealand in 2024 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Suborder: | Whippomorpha |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Family: | Ziphiidae |
| Genus: | Mesoplodon |
| Species: | M. traversii |
| Binomial name | |
| Mesoplodon traversii (Gray, 1874) | |
| Locations and dates of specimens | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Dolichodon traversii Gray, 1874 | |
The spade-toothed whale (Mesoplodon traversii) is the rarest species of beaked whale. Only six confirmed specimens have ever been found, over the timespan from 1872 to 2024. All six were found in the South Pacific—five in New Zealand and one in Chile. Very little is known about the species.