Clymene Dolphins

Sachit Murali
Author - Charles Q. Choi
Published: January 11, 2014
Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140111-hybrid-dolphin-species-ocean-animal-science/  

Summary: The Clymene Dolphins or about seven feet long (or 2.1 meters) and are a new hybrid dolphin through cross breeding, found out by marine biologists. This dolphin was originally found in 1981 but was considered an ancestor of the spinner dolphin. This was wrong and was because these dolphins were actually a completely different species except that was only recently found out. These dolphins are hybrids. Biologists sampled 15 clymene, 21 spinner dolphins and found out that the nuclear DNA was very different to that of the spinner dolphin. In fact the striped dolphin resembled the clymene dolphin DNA more closely than that of the clymene. This caught of a lot of scientists off guard, because this meant that this new dolphin is a hybrid of the striped dolphin and the spinner dolphin. Now this also meant that this was a speciation or the creation of a new species. Scientists have not yet figured out whether or not these dolphins are infertile or not. They predict that they will be infertile just like the mule.

Connections:
In class we have been studying a lot about evolution and how species evolve. In class we learned about how certain species get reproduced through natural selection. Well the clymene dolphin was chosen through natural selection. Also the creation of a new species or speciation is something we have discussed in class which is a result of natural selection. This dolphin just like in Darwin's theory was able to survive in its environment and out compete other dolphins allowing certain DNA to be passed on making it unique and eventually its own species. It has the traits of the spinner dolphin, and the DNA of the striped dolphin but it is its own species. The clymene Dolphin.