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00:04 Blue whales are the largest creatures on the planet, stretching 80 to 100 feet long and
00:09 weighing upwards of 290,000 to 330,000 pounds.
00:14 However, despite their size, marine biologists say they now have evidence that these behemoths
00:18 are actually mating with another species.
00:21 The discovery was made during genome sequencing of North Atlantic blue whales, finding that
00:25 3.5% of their DNA was actually fin whale DNA.
00:29 Fin whales are still quite large, but not nearly as big as their apparent blue whale
00:33 mates.
00:34 Fin whales average a length of around 70 feet and weigh upwards of 100,000 pounds.
00:39 The researchers say they were not only surprised at such a high percentage of DNA coming from
00:43 fin whales, but that every blue whale sampled had at least some of it.
00:47 This is especially wild considering that most hybrid animals are infertile.
00:50 Yet that doesn't seem to be the case with the offspring of these two whale species.
00:54 Experts say this is likely due to them still being quite close on the evolutionary tree.
00:59 However, the biologists note that while blue whales all have some fin whale DNA, the opposite
01:03 isn't true.
01:04 This is believed to be the result of limited blue whales to mate with, meaning blue whales
01:08 might be the only ones that will mate with the hybrid whales.
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