BajaNomad

Possible New Whale Species Discovered Off Baja

GueroBob - 12-9-2020 at 03:00 PM



https://seashepherd.org/2020/12/08/sea-shepherd-research-mis...

BornFisher - 12-9-2020 at 03:57 PM

Well, that`s something you don`t see every day.
Gives me hope for Bigfoot!!!

New whale species found off Baja

caj13 - 12-9-2020 at 04:16 PM

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/12/09/new-whale-specie...

elgatoloco - 12-9-2020 at 07:42 PM

:cool:

BajaBlanca - 12-10-2020 at 04:21 AM

Oh my gosh! This is amazing news for 2020.

KasloKid - 12-10-2020 at 11:19 AM

I sent the link to a retired marine biologist friend... he was ecstatic!!

AKgringo - 12-10-2020 at 11:36 AM

The article stated that they recovered tissue that could reveal the genetic make up. I wonder if this is indeed a species that has gone undocumented all theses years, or a hybrid of known species that have managed to cross breed?

Pretty amazing stuff either way!

caj13 - 12-10-2020 at 08:43 PM

It could be a hybrid, but i doubt it, most Hybrids are sterile, even if not,
it would have to be persistent crossbreeding to produce a new pool of breeders. and this thing also had different calls. additionally, who would the other parent be, it would have to be closely related to make it work, and I'm not sure there is another whale that would be a good prospect, maybe Sherri can chime in, shes the expert

highbred are very common in plants. not so much in animals

mtgoat666 - 12-10-2020 at 09:06 PM

Quote: Originally posted by GueroBob  


https://seashepherd.org/2020/12/08/sea-shepherd-research-mis...

“Environmental genetic sampling, performed at the time of the sighting, is undergoing analysis and is expected to prove the existence of this new species definitively.‘



Seems a bit premature to declare they discovered a new species, they have not yet finished the lab work, and are just going off of acoustics and distant visual inspection...

Beaked whales are the least-known group of whales because they are few in number, and stay in deep waters (so not near coasts, infrequently observed).

caj13 - 12-11-2020 at 08:06 AM

Goat,
as one who has personally discovered 5 different species, i can tell you that when we saw it, we immediately suspected it was new, and were convinced of that within a couple of hours (to backcheck obscure scientific references from the past 100 years).

we did run the genetics and get confirmation - although thats not nearly cut and dried as many think. what % difference is a new species? are you looking at Genes, whole genome, SNPs STRs?

But usually you get a pretty clear signal from the DNA confirming or rejecting your original "new species" call. However, that DNA is apparently "environmental DNA" essentially you grab a sample of water, and process the whole thing. They will have sequence from hundreds if not thousands of species in there, so sorting it out takes alot of time, and some significant computing power.

[Edited on 12-13-2020 by caj13]

shari - 12-12-2020 at 08:36 AM

Quote: Originally posted by caj13  
It could be a hybrid, but i doubt it, most Hybrids are sterile, even if not,
it would have to be persistent crossbreeding to produce a new pool of breeders. and this thing also had different calls. additionally, who would the other parent be, it would have to be closely related to make it work, and I'm not sure there is another whale that would be a good prospect, maybe Sherri can chime in, shes the expert


Not my field of expertise at all...I am far from an expert in genetics and species ID but am following the interesting discovery of course but the jury is still out which is why I haven't commented. I have always figured there are many species that havent been identified...all over the planet.