
Researchers confirm that narwhals and belugas can interbreed - conse_lad
https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2019/06/danish-researchers-confirm-that-narwhals-and-belugas-can-interbreed/
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pvaldes
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJhGf7S4cSQ)

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ficklepickle
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 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...](https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2019/04/29/strangely-behaving-
beluga-wearing-a-russian-harness-raises-alarm-in-norway/)

[1] [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/06/russia-
mo...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/06/russia-moves-orcas-
and-belugas-from-whale-jail/)

~~~
pvaldes
Could be. Diet study in skulls is all about isotopes. Different isotopes mean
different preys, or preys from different trophic chains that in practice mean
different locations.

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.

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ivl
I have to say the teeth are absolutely fascinating.

> 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.

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kijin
Huh, narwhals and belugas aren't even in the same genus. Most well-known
hybrids like tigers and lions, horses and donkeys, and tomatoes and potatoes
have been between species in the same genus. Maybe this discovery will prompt
biologists to place narwhals and belugas in the same genus? It must be lonely
being the sole member of a genus, after all.

~~~
paulmd
by a strict definition of species, this means they are in fact the same
species.

~~~
SkyBelow
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.

~~~
CWuestefeld
"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.

~~~
toasterlovin
I think colors are a good analogy. Colors exist and are distinct at certain
distances from each other, but things start to get blurry the closer two
colors are to each other. For instance, is turquoise blue? Is it green? It's
kinda both.

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.

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k_sze
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?

~~~
k_sze
So I was still thinking about this question while taking a shower. Did the
researchers come to that conclusion by analyzing food stuff that was still
lodged in the jaws?

Oops, upon rereading, I just spotted “isotope analysis”. How different are
isotopes between water-column diet and bottom diet?

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orla0010
Move aside Liger.

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JoeAltmaier
Very, very carefully

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PhilWright
What are the offspring called...

narlugas

belwhals

..?

~~~
TylerE
It depends, probably. I know with big cats it depends on which species is the
father and mother.

Tigons and Ligers are both a thing.

~~~
jmts
With regard to horses and donkeys a "mule" is the offspring of a male donkey
and female horse [1], while a "hinny" is the offspring of a female donkey and
a male horse [2].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinny)

~~~
fouc
TIL: Hinny

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f2f
reddit 10 years ago would've been all over this.

Q: "what time does the narwhal bacon?"

A: "when the belugas are near!"

~~~
voicedYoda
But, they bacon at midnight

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f2f
now we know why :)

