A new species of aquatic mammal, a hybrid of a whale and a dolphin, has been identified in waters near Hawaii.
The so-called wolphin has been confirmed by scientists after it was spotted on a research trip near Kauai island.
It was fathered by a rough-toothed dolphin but born to a melon-headed whale, two rare species seldom seen in that part of the Pacific.
The creature was seen swimming with dolphins. Robin Baird, a marine biologist who led the expedition, called it a “most unusual finding”, and the first known hybrid between the species.
Whales and dolphins both belong to the same taxonomic order, and are closely enough related that offspring between them can be fertile and have been recorded although they are extremely rare.