One of New Zealand's top science brains was in Wanganui on Monday running his eye over the Whanganui Regional Museum's fossil collection.
Otago University's Ewan Fordyce made the stop just hours after arriving back from Washington, on his way to New Plymouth.
The museum holds the "type specimen' for the Shepherd's beaked whale and was an item the fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand was especially keen to see. A type specimen is used for the initial research on a species.
It was discovered on the coast of South Taranaki in 1933 and named after the then curator of the museum.
Dr Fordyce said it was a significant specimen. "You have the standard reference for that whale. It puts this museum on the map.