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(CNN) – Scientists from the Cascadia research collective have discovered a rare hybrid of dolphins off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii, according to a report released last week.
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Marine Mammal Monitoring Program, funded by the US Navy. United States, saw the animal for the first time in August 2017. The team scored several species, including spiked common dolphins and less common melon-headed whales.
However, researchers quickly noticed that an animal's labeling seemed a little strange. Although it has a dorsal fin shape and a typical dorsal layer of a melon-headed whale, it also has spots on pigmentation and a sloping forehead, more like a dolphin with rough teeth.
A genetic sample soon confirms his suspicions: it was a hybrid of the two species, the first to be found.
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The hybridization between species may seem strange, but it's possible because of the fact that whales with head melon are not really whales. They belong to the family Delphinidae, also known as the oceanic dolphin, which also includes killer whales and two species of pilot whales, also known as pilot whales.
No discovery of hybridization in the family; There have also been cases of bottlenose dolphins (Pseudorca crbadidens), known as dolphins, and common hybrids of dolphins and bottlenose dolphins.
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This is the first confirmed hybrid between rough-toothed dolphins and melon-headed whales. However, although this is an exciting discovery, the researchers point out that this is not, as is commonly believed, a new species.
"While hybridization can sometimes lead to new species, most of the time it does not happen," says Robin Baird, a Cascadia researcher, at CNN, noting that only one hybrid was found this time.
Some hybrid animals, such as mullet, a hybrid of male and female donkeys, are mostly sterile and, for example, therefore, they can not spread easily.
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