KAUAI, Hawaii — Last year, a team of scientists spotted what they believed was a hybrid animal off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. A new report from Cascadia Research Collective confirms they did -- and the new sea creature is the result of a whale and a dolphin mating, the team's head researcher told CBS News.
What the researchers discovered was a hybrid of a melon-headed whale and a rough-toothed dolphin. In an interview with local newspaper The Garden Island, the head of the project said the discovery is their "most unusual finding." "We had the photos and suspected it was a hybrid from morphological characteristics intermediate between species," Robin Baird said.
During their two-week project, scientists were able to get a biopsy sample from the creature and study its genetics.
One of the species that makes up this hybrid is very rare in Hawaii, making the discovery even more remarkable.
Melon-headed whales usually don't swim in these waters, so when scientists spotted the whale, they put satellite tags on the animal. During this two-week study, scientists also spotted another rare species in the water, pantropical spotted dolphins, which they also tagged.
So should they call it a wolphin or dhale?
