Most teeth for a beaked whale

The species of beaked whale or ziphiid with most teeth is Shepherd's beaked whale Tasmacetus shepherdi, which possesses up to 27 pairs of functional teeth in each jaw (plus a pair of short tusks at the tip of the lower jaw in males). This is remarkable, because all other beaked whales only possess a handful of teeth at most – indeed, their paucity of teeth is one of these whales' most characteristic features, thereby making Shepherd's beaked whale a noteworthy, anomalous exception. It has been recorded off New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.

One of the most mysterious of all whale species (despite measuring up to 7 m long), it remained unknown to science until a specimen was beached in New Zealand in 1933, which became the holotype of this very singular species, formally described and named in 1937. Even today, only four confirmed sightings of a living individual at sea have been made, and just over 40 strandings have been documented.

It is the only member of its genus.