Sir James Hector exhibited the skeleton of a young female whale of a rare species—Mesoplodon hectori, Van Beneden—which, with its mother, was captured last March at Titahi Bay. Only four specimens of this species had, he said, been met with. The first two were fragments only. The adult specimen on this occasion the Museum, unfortunately, had not been able to secure, and this was, therefore, the only perfect skeleton available. Strangely enough, the two other specimens had been found in the same little bay. The Mesoplodon might be regarded as a miniature species of the family of which the great sperm whale was the type. A northern species was known, differing in several points from the New Zealand species.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1901-34.2.10.1.4
Bibliographic details
Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 34, 1901, Page 563
Word Count
119Remarks on a Specimen of Mesoplodon hectori. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 34, 1901, Page 563
Using This Item
In-Copyright Materials
In-copyright materials are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. This means that you may copy, adapt and republish this material, as long as you attribute both the author and the Royal Society of New Zealand.
In-copyright taxonomic materials are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivatives 4.0 International licence. This means that you may copy and republish this material, as long as you attribute both the author and the Royal Society of New Zealand.
For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this periodical, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in