The week s good news: December 10, 2020 Catherine Garcia
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While on the lookout for beaked whales, researchers may have discovered an entirely new species of the animal. Last month, the team, led by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was tracking beaked whales near Mexico s San Benito Islands, when suddenly these animals popped to the surface right next to the boat, Jay Barlow, a marine mammal biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told
Reuters. It was just a phenomenal encounter. It s very rare to see even a beaked whale, and to find a friendly group of beaked whales, it s even rarer. The researchers took pictures of the whales and recorded their acoustic signals, and found that their teeth were unusually placed and their calls were different from other beaked whales. The team also took water samples, which are now being analyzed to see if there are skin cells that can be tested, confirming whether the whales are a new species. [
All the media attention from across the world, congratulatory messages from the Dalai Lama, actors and ministers has left Ranjitsinh Disale, a teacher at the Zilla Parishad Primary School, Paritewadi, Solapur in Maharashtra quite stunned.This .