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New Species of Whale Discovered

dlesko writes: "Scientists have discovered a new species of whale, a startling find made through DNA analysis of some of the marine mammals that washed ashore in California over the past three decades."

38 comments

  1. How did we miss this guy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Twice the size of the average dolphin and beaching themselves on the coast of California, how did this slip past researchers for this many months?

    Do they taste good?

    1. Re:How did we miss this guy? by caligula213 · · Score: 1

      New Whale Species......... mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

    2. Re:How did we miss this guy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they must of thought they were geek girlfriends sunbathing

    3. Re:How did we miss this guy? by jo42 · · Score: 1

      Just don't call him Willy.

    4. Re:How did we miss this guy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because every time someone sees an organism, they dont whip out their genetic splicers and scan their dna... if there is no cause for alarm then what is the point in putting uncalled-for research into it?

  2. Here be whales. by Perdo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where be my harpoon?

    That night, in the mid-watch, when the old man - as his wont at intervals - stepped forth from the scuttle in which he leaned, and went to his pivot-hole, he suddenly thrust out his face fiercely, snuffing up the sea air as a sagacious ship's dog will, in drawing nigh to some barbarous isle. He declared that a whale must be near. Soon that peculiar odor, sometimes to a great distance given forth by the living sperm whale, was palpable to all the watch; nor was any mariner surprised when, after inspecting the compass, and then the dog-vane, and then ascertaining the precise bearing of the odor as nearly as possible, Ahab rapidly ordered the ship's course to be slightly altered, and the sail to be shortened.

    The acute policy dictating these movements was sufficiently vindicated at daybreak, by the sight of a long sleek on the sea directly and lengthwise ahead, smooth as oil, and resembling in the pleated watery wrinkles bordering it, the polished metallic-like marks of some swift tide- rip, at the mouth of a deep, rapid stream.

    "Man the mast-heads! Call all hands

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

  3. Screw Whales, We Want Lizards! by leviramsey · · Score: 0, Offtopic
  4. strange reporting by rjamestaylor · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Why is it that a story about a new species of whale does not tell us what the new species' name is, what the similar species name is or what factors of the DNA distinguish the two from each other, yet we're treated to a number of sentences about "even off the coast of California" we don't know everything, and "even from these big animals everyone loves" we don't know everything.

    It's funny; I started out reading the article to find out something I didn't know and instead was told something I already knew - that I don't know everything.

    It's enough to make me swear off popular reporting of scientific stories.

    --
    -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
    1. Re:strange reporting by nucal · · Score: 4, Informative
      Boy, that story was wafer-thin.

      This is an abstract of what looks like a comparable study done with dolphins. Most of the original classification of species was done using fairly gross comparisons - almost to the level of "are they basically the same shape?" (sympatric morphotypes). What Heyning's group is doing is to compare the DNA sequence of a elements from a mitochondrial gene, cytochrome b, isolated from different dolphins or whales. Mitochondrial DNA is unique, in that it does not mix with nuclear DNA and is only transmitted to offspring from the mother, not the father. This means that since different species do not interbreed, species specific differences in mitochondrial DNA sequences will be more pronounced than in the more "typical" gene sequence. By grouping individual animals by mitochondrial DNA sequences, they can then use this to go back and identify subtle differences in physiology that you otherwise couldn't do with the small subpopulation of beached whales.

      A similar approach has been used to analyze human evolution, among other things.

    2. Re:strange reporting by rjamestaylor · · Score: 1
      • What Heyning's group is doing is to compare the DNA sequence of a elements from a mitochondrial gene, cytochrome b, isolated from different dolphins or whales. Mitochondrial DNA is unique, in that it does not mix with nuclear DNA and is only transmitted to offspring from the mother, not the father. This means that since different species do not interbreed, species specific differences in mitochondrial DNA sequences will be more pronounced than in the more "typical" gene sequence. By grouping individual animals by mitochondrial DNA sequences, they can then use this to go back and identify subtle differences in physiology that you otherwise couldn't do with the small subpopulation of beached whales.
      Reporterette: Pause, blink and and stare vacantly. At last offer up, perkily --

      Wow, we really don't know all there is to know about our big California-coast visiting friends, do we?

      --
      -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
    3. Re:strange reporting by nucal · · Score: 1
      "release early and release often"

      well .... I can see where that came from"

    4. Re:strange reporting by Peter+Trepan · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why is it that a story about a new species of whale does not tell us what the new species' name is,

      "New Whale"

      what the similar species name is

      "Classic Whale"

      or what factors of the DNA distinguish the two from each other

      gaca - tcag - gacc - caga - ttag - cacg - ggat - ttcg - gcta - aacc - tatc - ccag - gccg - agac - gacc - caga - tcag - gacc - tatc - ccag - gcaa - aacc - tatc - ccag - gccg - agac - gacc - caga - tcag - gacc - tatc - ccag - gcaa - tcag

      Glad I could help.

      --

      Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.

  5. "New"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Face it editors, this is a previously unknown or a freshly discovered type of whale, but it isn't NEW. These have been swimming the oceans for a long time.

    I sure hope they code with more word accuracy than they edit..

    1. Re:"New"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  6. Good taste/bad taste? by zardor · · Score: 1, Funny

    I suppose the Japs will have to go out and catch a few thousand of them for "research purposes"

    --
    -- We don't understand software, and sometimes we don't understand hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights
    1. Re:Good taste/bad taste? by linzeal · · Score: 1

      This is not flamebait you fuckheads !!!! The japanese have been hunting minke whales for years for "research purposes" where all the meat goes to the sushi table !!!

    2. Re:Good taste/bad taste? by global_diffusion · · Score: 1

      It's people like you who make sushi research sound bad. Flamer.

      (joking of course. I am in complete agreement with you.)

  7. whales, these large animals everyone loves by Cy+Guy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "It's clear that even for whales, these large animals everyone loves, there's a lot we don't know,. . . Scientists based the last identification of a new species of beaked whale, in 1991, in part on specimens found for sale in a fish market in Peru."

    The Japanese especially love whales, that's why they are always undertaking 'scientific studies' of whale populations, which (totally coincindentally) results in having to sell the meat of the studied whales for local consumption in Japan. Considering that technology exist to remove miniscule DNA samples from the whales to study their popluation and migration patterns, one has to wonder why the Japanese instead choose to kill the animals they are trying to learn about.

    There was a massive campaign in the US when it discovered dolphins were being killed by tuna fisherman, and protests led to labelling tuna as tuna as 'Dolphin Safe'. What we need now is a world-wide campaign to to label TVs, cars, and audio systems as being made in countries where Whale is not on the menu.

  8. Most intelligent species on the planet? by JJ · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Certain species of whales may be among the most intelligent species on the planet. For one thing, they aren't responsible for global warming but are perfectly placed to take advantage of it. Second, they exist nearly perfectly at the top of their respective food chains, as in nothing eats them (apart from the occasional Japanese that is.) Third, they spend a good portion of their time goofing around (as in they don't have to put in hours a day in an office cube.)

    --
    So long and thanks for all the fish . . . !!!
  9. those crazy orientals will eat anything that moves by cosmol · · Score: 1
    No Shit.

    You think that's bad... I saw a show on PBS about someones travels across vietnam. In many villages there is an animal market which stocks THOUSANDS of different species, for food and "medicine." Of course, many were endangered.

    I'm sorry, but the more rare an animal is the less likely I am going to want to eat it. I'm sticking with chickens, pigs and cows, myself. I just don't understand the appeal of "rare delicacies." Maybe someone can explain this cultural difference too me.

  10. Re:those crazy orientals will eat anything that mo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's because they're still lower on the evolutionary scale... which would compare them to large baboons that kill and eat anything that moves...

  11. Here's a photo of that News Species! by cfeagans · · Score: 2, Funny

    Interesting... Click this Link to see it.

  12. Re:those crazy orientals will eat anything that mo by t · · Score: 1
    Did you hear of the researchers who were buying random samples of a supposed legal meat and then testing the DNA to find that it could be pretty much any animal whose meat looked remotely similar.

    And the difference is poverty and population density. You should look at a map and population figures sometime, you'll find that the US is quite large on a per person basis.

    t.

  13. Re:those crazy orientals will eat anything that mo by t · · Score: 1

    And now for that crack about eating anything that moves, it's better than you whites who'll fuck anything. Or stick it up your ass.

  14. Re:those crazy orientals will eat anything that mo by cosmol · · Score: 1

    Thanks for pointing that out, cows do take up alot of room and resources. Kind of like SUVs I guess ;)

  15. Re:those crazy orientals will eat anything that mo by cosmol · · Score: 1

    don't get me started on asian pr0n now.....

  16. Re:those crazy orientals will eat anything that mo by forii · · Score: 1

    I'm sticking with chickens, pigs and cows, myself. I just don't understand the appeal of "rare delicacies." Maybe someone can explain this cultural difference too me.

    Of course, to a lot of people around the world, your insistence on eating Pork would be considered disgusting, dirty, etc. etc.

  17. Bacon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No one can resist bacon.

    Mmmmmmmmmm bacon...

    1. Re:Bacon by Darby · · Score: 1

      No one can resist bacon.

      Funny.
      My girlfriend is a vegetarian (not for moral reasons, it just creeps her out) and she said that the number 1 downfall of vegetarians is bacon. She goes crazy for bacon flavored "crisps" ( these are potato chips to us Americans she's British) and we always have a plentiful supply of fake bacon bits in the house.

    2. Re:Bacon by fantomas · · Score: 2

      bacon? yuk. factory farmed animal fed on ground up parts of its own species, forced to live in its own shit in cramped conditions and is force fed till killed at an early age. Hmmm...I bin resisting for the last 18 years somehow, somehow.


      cultural thing I guess. Maybe American veggies always give in to twinkies or summink.


    3. Re:Bacon by Darby · · Score: 1

      acon? yuk. factory farmed animal fed on ground up parts of its own species, forced to live in its own shit in cramped conditions

      It's the bacon taste she likes. She wouldn't be caught dead eating actual bacon.

  18. Re:those crazy orientals will eat anything that mo by Lars+T. · · Score: 2

    It's mostly that these animals are not eaten because they are rare, but because they are tasty (or supposedly have healing or "up-lifting" powers). They usualy are close to extinction because they are sought after.

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  19. evolution by fantomas · · Score: 2

    So does that mean vegans are higher on the evolutionary scale than meat eating humans?

  20. bacon taste by fantomas · · Score: 2

    ah yeah, I guess I was pointing out the reason people are veggie sometimes, issues of morality etc. Speaking as a veggie for 18 years, I've never felt the need for tasting meat, but also know some people who do. Guess this is the reason there is a market in meat flavoured veggie products. I suppose the politically correct veggie angle would be that it is better to enjoy a taste of bacon by eating meat substitutes than to actually kill animals. A bit like if you're into guns its probably better to go to a shooting range or play Quake than go down your high street shooting people. Or something. I guess I go with the Gandhi line 'the world has enough for everybody's needs but not everybody's greed' ... but that's a whole other conversation... what was this /. thread originally? :-)))) . Nice talking with you.

  21. hey i've got an idea! by dolphin558 · · Score: 1

    Let's clone the whale! And perform genetic engineering on the poor creature, i don't know mabye mix it's genes with a killer whale!? this post was sarcastically reflecting the knee jerk reaction many of us now have to cloning/geneticizing anything and everything.