The possible extinction of the vaquita, the world’s most endangered marine mammal, has scientists concerned and growing desperate. As a result, the vaquita escaped human detection until 1958, when a scientist examining skulls on the beach realized the porpoises occasionally spotted there were an unknown species. Marine biologists Kenneth Norris and William McFarland first introduced the animal in their article A New Harbor Porpoise of the genus Phocoena from the Gulf of.