No, whales and dolphins can't hybridise. This article is bad science.
Within the order Cetacea there are several families, including several that are considered dolphins, primarily on the basis of size but also certain anatomical distinctions.
- Delphinidae (ocean dolphins)
- Monodontidae (narwhal and beluga)
- Phocoenidae (porpoises)
- Four families of river dolphins
There are six, possibly seven, families of whale. Mostly they are much bigger than dolphins, but they also have lots of anatomic differences such as the absence of teeth (baleen whales) or a reduction in the number of teeth (e.g., sperm whales have teeth only in one jaw, bottlenose whales only two teeth in their entire mouth).
- Balaenidae (right whales)
- Neobalaenidae (pygmy right whale)
- Balaenopteridae (roquals, the blue whale for example)
- Eschrichtiidae (grey whale)
- Ziphiidae (bottlenose whales)
- Physeteridae (sperm whale)
- Kogiidae (pygmy sperm whales -- not all experts consider the family distinct from the sperm whale family)
Now, the word "whale" gets applied to several types of dolphin -- killer whale, dwarf killer whale, and at least two types of pilot whale. They may be called whales but they're definitely dophins. A hybridisation between a false killer whale and an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin is therefore a hybridisation between two dolphins, one of which happens to be called a whale. Just to give you an idea of what this means, consider it about as remarkable as the hybridisation between two cichlids that are fairly closely related but still in their own genera, say a discus and an angelfish. Hybridsation between two families would be like a cichlid hybridising with a wrasse or a damselfish; much more remarkable.
Cheers, Neale
well it is a whale/dolphin hybrid
http
/www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7508288/
I'm no scientist but surely a mammal can not produce ofspring with a fish
Whales and dolphins are both mammals. The wholphin is an uncommon, but documented, mammalian hybrid.
