Blue whales are the largest creatures on the planet, stretching 80 to 100 feet long and weighing in upwards of 290,000 to 330,000 pounds. However, despite their size, marine biologists say they now have evidence that these behemoths are actually mating with another species.
00:00Blue whales are the largest creatures on the planet, stretching 80 to 100 feet long and weighing upwards of 290,000 to 330,000 pounds.
00:14However, despite their size, marine biologists say they now have evidence that these behemoths are actually mating with another species.
00:21The discovery was made during genome sequencing of North Atlantic blue whales, finding that 3.5% of their DNA was actually fin whale DNA.
00:29Fin whales are still quite large, but not nearly as big as their apparent blue whale mates.
00:34Fin whales average a length of around 70 feet and weigh upwards of 100,000 pounds.
00:39The researchers say they were not only surprised at such a high percentage of DNA coming from fin whales, but that every blue whale sampled had at least some of it.
00:47This is especially wild considering that most hybrid animals are infertile.
00:50Yet that doesn't seem to be the case with the offspring of these two whale species.
00:54Experts say this is likely due to them still being quite close on the evolutionary tree.
00:59However, the biologists note that while blue whales all have some fin whale DNA, the opposite isn't true.
01:04This is believed to be the result of limited blue whales to mate with, meaning blue whales might be the only ones that will mate with the hybrid whales.
