News Genetics

DNA confirms a weird Greenland whale was a narwhal-beluga hybrid

Genetic analysis of the animal’s skull shows it had a narwhal mom and beluga dad

beluga, hybrid and narwhal skulls

TELLTALE TEETH  The skull of an unusual whale (center) killed decades ago resembles a cross between a beluga whale (right) and a narwhal (left). A genetic study confirms that the animal is a beluga-narwhal hybrid.  

Mikkel Høegh Post/Natural History Museum of Denmark

By Tina Hesman Saey

- More than 2 years ago

Researchers have made a whale of a discovery — a hybrid of a beluga whale and a narwhal.