Almost 40 years ago, in the depths of the Pacific, a single voice called a different song from others. The sound echoed at the depths in 52 Hertz and surprised the listeners of these solos that ringed from the symphony of the ocean. The frequency was much higher than a blue whale or cousin, leaving scientists to think about my mystery Whale 52.
Leviathan has been heard many times since then, but never seen. Some suspect that they may have some deformations that change their voice. Others think that this can be quite unusual – a tenor among the baritones. However, the sea biologist John Calambocidis proposes another possibility: “The lonely whale” was named after the Cascadia Research collective, so it may be no one to respond to its unique call, but a clue, not an anomaly.
Calambocidis, which spends more than 50 years to read Cetaceans, whale 52 suspects can be a hybrid: partially blue whale, partly Finnish whale.
Such a creature, usually called chimney whale, is growing more widely while pushing the blues into new reproductive areas. The probability of mating with fins is increasingly likely relatives. North Atlantic Blues’ a survey published last year 3.5 percent of the genomesA striking figure considering two species He left 8.35 million years ago. If the whale 52 is really a hybrid, it recommends to be intertwined between its presence. Balaenoptera MusculusAs is known among Blues’ scientists and Balaenoptera Physalus Although not longer, it has occurred for decades. North Atlantic findings show that it is accelerated.
The intercrete, especially between Narwhals and Belugas, and between two pilot whales, are largely documented, largely, combinations attributed to these animals to the new region and to the heated seas that pushed to the closer proximity. However, hybridization, grizzlies and polar bears born more closely between terrestrial creatures such as pizzly bears. It is almost never understood in marine mammals, and very little is known about what the intertwined past will mean for the genetics, behavior and survival of the greatest animal that has lived so far.
“Blue whales are still struggling to get rid of whale hunting that lasted centuries, and some populations remain less than 5 percent of the historical numbers, C Calambokidis said. While the number of approved hybrids remains low, the ongoing habitat disruption can make them more widespread, erodes genetic diversity and reduces the flexibility of struggling populations.
Before the arrival of the genomics 30 years ago, sea biologists defined hybrids primarily by examining morphology or physical properties. If an animal has exhibited the characteristics of two species – a narwhal and a fat body of a fat body, For example – It can be labeled as a hybrid based on external properties or skeletal measurements. Anecdotic evidence can also play a role: Historical whale hunting logs Blues and fins occasionally recommend each other, but these matches were not largely confirmed. However, morphology, at best, can reveal the first generation offspring of two different species.
By analyzing DNA, naval biologists such as Aimee Lang can now define the intertwined pasts that occur before generations and reveal a much more complex history than previously understood. This new level of detail makes the official complex: Flues is more common or is researchers better equipped to find them? As scientists explore the genetic signatures of whales around the world, they hopes to distinguish the direction of hybridization, or a developing tendency directed by climate change or a long -ignored, ignored marine evolution.
In any case, some marine biologists find phenomenon worrying, because Flues will not largely reproduce. Although some women are fertile, men tend to be sterile. These hybrids represent a small part of the blue whales of the world, which do not remain more than 25,000, but show that the sloping population of the two species will increase. There are four times more fins than Blues worldwide and an estimate of the waters around Iceland was found 37,000 fins to 3,000 blue.
Lang, who examined the genetics of the marine mammal in the National Ocean and Atmosphere Administration, said, “Three thousand very high animals are not density.” “So a woman can imagine whether blue is looking for a wife and cannot find a blue whale, but she will choose one of them everywhere.”
This has deep effects for protection. If hybrids cannot be easily defined, WRONG EXPLANATIONS The difficulty of evaluating the effectiveness of blue whale population and protection programs. More disturbing, sterile animals cannot contribute to the survival of species. Simply put, hybridization pose a threat to long -term survival.
“If it is seen frequently enough, hybrid genomes can finally sink the real blue whale genomes,” Lang said. “Hybrids may have been adapted to the environment as a purebred blue or fin, that is, everything is produced is evolutionary dilemmas.”
This may have consequences for all ecosystems. Each whale type plays a special role in providing sea ecosystem health, for example, by managing Krill populations or providing basic nutrients such as iron. Hybrids, who do not play the role of evolution, weaken this symbiotic relationship with the sea. “These individuals and their offspring do not fully fill the ecological niche of both main species, Cal Calambocidis said.
All of this contributes to the uncertainty made by the ongoing uprisings. Many sea ecosystem To experience regime shifts – Sudden and usually irreversible changes in structure and function – heating waters, acidification and changing hunting distributions. These changes push some sea pony species into smaller, more isolated reproductive pools.
There is a source of concern beyond blue whales. Widespread disintegration between the 76 Orcas of the Southern Southern Southern Murder Whale population of the Pacific Northwest genetically put one’s life almost halvesmore harmful genetic properties, weakened immune systems, fertility and higher the risk of mortality mortality. Orca Tahlequah, known for carrying dead calves for 17 days around the world in 2018, I lost another one in January. Still 370 or more North Atlantic Right Whales confront similar difficulties.
Species may be inevitable between Cetasean and hybridization as long as species adapt to climate change. Some may be useful. The real concern is whether these changes will pass through the ability of whales to survive. Chimney whales may be an anomaly, but their presence is a symptom of wider, anthropogenic disruptions.
“Although they have low genetic diversity, there are examples of well -performing population and there are examples they do not do well,” he said. Coastal Studies Provincetown, Massachusetts. “They may be good under current conditions, but when the conditions change more, and this can turn.”
“The effect may be what we call bottleneck,” he added. “Loss of genetic diversity.”
These changes are usually slowly emerge for people to quickly perceive. Unlike fish with fast life cycles and net population explosions or accidents, whales are living for decades and overlapping generations that hide urgent tendencies. Since whale hunting has largely stopped, there have only been 30 whale belts. In order to really understand how these prints shape whale populations, researchers may take so long to reveal what happened under the waves, and if there is anything, whale 52 said about it.
This article emerged at the beginning Grist from https://grist.org/oceans/what-the-worlds-loneelest-whale-teling-us-utmlim-chang/. Grist is an independent media organization dedicated to a profit to tell climate solutions and a fair future stories. Learn more Grist.org.
