The strap-toothed beaked whale, also known as Layard's beaked whale, is one of the largest members of the mesoplodont genus, growing to 6.2 m (20 ft) in length and reaching up to 1,300 kg (2,900 lb).
The common and scientific name was given in honor of Edgar Leopold Layard, the curator of the South African Museum, who prepared drawings of a skull and sent them to the British taxonomist John Edward Gray, who described the species in 1865.
Strap-toothed whale
Skull of a male strap-toothed beaked whale
Small denticles on the upper surface of the male's tusks
A porpoising strap-toothed whale, photographed in the Drake Passage between Chile and Antarctica.
Mesoplodont whales are 16 species of toothed whale in the genus Mesoplodon, making it the largest genus in the cetacean order. Two species were described as recently as 1991 and 2002, and marine biologists predict the discovery of more species in the future. A new species was described in 2021. They are the most poorly known group of large mammals. The generic name "mesoplodon" comes from the Greek meso- (middle) - hopla (arms) - odon (teeth), and may be translated as 'armed with a tooth in the centre of the jaw'.
Mesoplodon
Round scars from cookiecutter shark bites can be seen on the flank of this stranded Gray's beaked whale.
Sowerby's beaked whale, Mesoplodon bidens; a male, with conspicuous teeth in the lower jaw
A stranded newborn Andrews' Beaked Whale, M. bowdoini