New hybrid whale-dolphin spotted off Hawaii

[Still Waters]

Last year, a team of scientists spotted what they believed was a hybrid animal off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. A new report from Cascadia Research Collective confirms they did and the new sea creature is the result of a whale and a dolphin mating, the team’s head researcher told CBS News.

What the researchers discovered was a hybrid of a melon-headed whale and a rough-toothed dolphin. In an interview with local newspaper The Garden Island, the head of the project said the discovery is their “most unusual finding.” “We had the photos and suspected it was a hybrid from morphological characteristics intermediate between species,” Robin Baird said.

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/07/27/whale-dolphin-hybrid-hawaii/

[Buzz_Light_Year]

I wonder if it's sterile like a Mule.

[Taun]

This proves that we've been dumping waaaay too much booze in the oceans...

[tashagyrl21]

http://seapics.com/feature-subject/dolphin-and-porpoise/wholphin-pictures.html

There is one at Sea Life park in Hawaii on Oahu.

[Grandpa Greenman]

They aren't really that far apart, they are both of the family,  delphinidae, so it could be fertile.  That is one way evolution works. When you think about when we shared the planet with other Hominids we mixed with them.  Help strengthen our genetic makeup, but we are the last.   A probable evolutionary dead end. 

 

[Taun]

3 hours ago, Grandpa Greenman said:

[snip] When you think about when we shared the planet with other Hominids we mixed with them.  [snip]

That explains my ex...

 

 

[Nnicolette]

I don't think the whale being rare makes it odd, it makes more sense that it would cross the species line. 

And yes its silly people do so often forget that we are hybrids too.

[openozy]

3 hours ago, NicoletteS said:

I don't think the whale being rare makes it odd, it makes more sense that it would cross the species line. 

And yes its silly people do so often forget that we are hybrids too.

I must be silly.What are we hybrids of?

[oldrover]

3 hours ago, openozy said:

I must be silly.What are we hybrids of?

Depends on where your roots are, there are several other human groups that we interbred with. Neandertals, Denisovans, and the other one in the far south east. Making us hybrids. 

[oldrover]

21 hours ago, Buzz_Light_Year said:

I wonder if it's sterile like a Mule.

Depends if it's a boy or a girl. Mammals are heterogametic, as in males have XY and females XX chromosomes, the male offspring of a hybridisation in mammals tends to be sterile if its the one with the differing sex chromosomes. The reason for this is known to people more knowledgeable than I, my knowledge ended at the last full stop. 

[paperdyer]

I just hope we leave it alone and don't try to "study" the critter to death.

[Hawken]

Finn whales have been known to breed with Blue whales.

[TripGun]

Adaptation is not evolution.