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> The hybrid skull has a set of long, spiraling and pointed teeth, that are angled horizontally.
Narwhals do not not have teeth (beyond two vestigial ones behind their spiraled tusk). Belugas have 40, which are vertical. This cross-breed ended up with 18, spiraled, horizontal teeth. Which it seemingly adapted to raking the sea floor with.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
by a strict definition of species, this means they are in fact the same species.
I'm not sure there is a strict definition of species. Take a ring species where A and B can interbreed and B and C can interbreed but A and C cannot. If some event kills all the B's, then you have two species instead of one. That you can make new species by killing only seems quite odd.
I think it turns out just that "species" is just a human construct. It's not something hard-and-fast that nature hews to. It's nothing but a construct we use for convenience in our drive for labels.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure there is a strict definition of species. Take a ring species where A and B can interbreed and B and C can interbreed but A and C cannot. If some event kills all the B's, then you have two species instead of one. That you can make new species by killing only seems quite odd.
"Ring species" are a fascinating thing, they really turn out to be a litmus test for testing notions of speciation. I think it turns out just that "species" is just a human construct. It's not something hard-and-fast that nature hews to. It's nothing but a construct we use for convenience in our drive for labels.
Same with organisms and populations. The farther away (evolutionarily speaking) two populations of interbreeding organisms are, the easier it is to distinguish them into different species. The closer they are, the more things start to look like turquoise.
What are the offspring called... narlugas belwhals ..?
Beluga and narwhals are surprisingly tolerant with each other [1] but whales have "cultures". What mother eats is eaten by the offspring. A different diet points towards a captive animal. Hybrids in dolphins happen with relative ease in captivity. Maybe related with beluga experiments by Russian navy, maybe the former inhabitant of a zoo. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJhGf7S4cSQ
I found this[0] interesting story from April about a tame beluga that approached a Norwegian fishing boat. It was wearing a tight harness, apparently meant for a camera, with markings that suggest a Russian origin.
I also found a very recent case where a Russian company illegally caught nearly 97 belugas and orcas and kept them in pens[1]. 8 of them were to be released today. This company supplies whales to aquariums.
[0] https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2019/04/29/strangely-behavi...
[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/06/russia-mo...
Beluga and narwhals are surprisingly tolerant with each other [1] but whales have "cultures". What mother eats is eaten by the offspring. A different diet points towards a captive animal. Hybrids in dolphins happen with relative ease in captivity. Maybe related with beluga experiments by Russian navy, maybe the former inhabitant of a zoo. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJhGf7S4cSQ
A captive whale is a very interesting theory. Could the different diet be the result of being fed by humans? I found this[0] interesting story from April about a tame beluga that approached a Norwegian fishing boat. It was wearing a tight harness, apparently meant for a camera, with markings that suggest a Russian origin. I also found a very recent case where a Russian company illegally caught nearly 97 belugas and o…
Would be interesting to know details about the death of the animal and how old and how was preserved the skull. If is a very old skull could mean also that the ecosystem in the same area has changed, and the whale feeded on preys that became rare later. Is well known that fisheries flourished in both world wars by the presence of submarines and frigates. Offshore fishing was a very dangerous activity in those years, so our common "war against fishes" stopped for a while.
One thing I’m curious about is how the researchers even tell that the hybrid is a bottom dweller. They have only seen the skull, not what was inside the hybrid’s stomach. Can some biologist shed some light here?
What are the offspring called... narlugas belwhals ..?
What I want to know is what did it taste like? Did they ask the native Iclandic hunter?
On the other hand, some Beluga meat is classified in the Toxic waste category so, probably not a good idea. They are prone to accumulate contamination byproducts and heavy metals in blubber