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+--- Thread: Blue Whale surprise (/showthread.php?tid=7761)
Blue Whale surprise - Catherine - 02-16-2024
Ten years ago 9 Blue Whales died off of Newfoundland. They have been studying the bodies ever since. One very interesting fact came out when they studied their DNA. Blue Whales have been cross breeding with Fin Whales. They have 3.5% Fin Whale DNA.
That is the same amount of DNA as the Neanderthal DNA found in modern humans.
How will this effect the Blue Whale species? That is still unknown.
https://nationalpost.com/news/newfoundland-whale-study
I suppose cross breeding is a survival mechanism for species at risk. It would provide some genetic diversity when population numbers are low.
It makes you wonder how many other species are cross breeding. We might be very surprised when we start looking at DNA profiles.