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JESSIE YEUNG
Scientists from the Cascadia research group discovered a rare dolphin hybrid off Kauai, Hawaii, according to a report released last week.
The marine mammal monitoring program, funded by the United States Navy, saw the animal for the first time in August 2017. The team scored several species, including common dolphins with spiky teeth and whales with less common melon heads.
Inter-species hybridization may seem strange, but it is possible because of the fact that melon-headed whales are not actually 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 called pilot whales.
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This is also not the first discovery of hybridization in the family; there have also been cases of large-nosed / false-bred hybrids ( Pseudorca crassidens ), known as Wolphins, and common hybrids of dolphins and dolphins at bottlenecks.
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 generally believed, a new species.
"While hybridization can sometimes lead to new species, most of the time it does not happen," says Robin Baird, a researcher at Cascadia, at CNN, noting that 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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