Gallery: Scientists Learn to Spot—and Tag—the Ocean's Elusive Beaked Whale

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    Ivy Press Limited
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    A who's who of beaked whales, a family that contains more species than any other type of cetacean. This is the Cuvier's beaked whale, which can dive down to almost 10,000 feet.
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    The Blainville's beaked whale has the weirdest underbite, jutting up over the beak. Sometimes, barnacles will attach to the whale's teeth.
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    The scratches on adult male Stejneger's beaked whales are inflicted by other Stejneger's beaked whales, who fight with each other with their teeth.
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    Shepherd's beaked whales have lumpy heads, which they use to amplify the vocalizations they make.
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    Most of what scientists know about the diminutive Pygmy beaked whale comes from their tendency to be caught by fishing nets off the coast of Peru.
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    The Perrin's beaked whale is one of the family's newest species, described in 2002 after specimens washed up on California beaches.
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    The Gervais' beaked whale has the dubious distinction of stranding more often than any other type of beaked whale, often on the coast of the southeastern US.
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    Pretty much nothing is known about the Hector's beaked whale other than that they are "not gregarious."
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    Gray's beaked whales are one of the better-known species, first introduced to science thanks to a mass stranding in 1874 that left 28 whales on a beach near New Zealand.
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    Not much is known about the Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale, other than that their teeth look an awful lot like a certain living fossil leaf.
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