Scientists Find a Never-Before-Seen Hybrid: A Narluga

It's the first skull ever discovered for a cross between a beluga whale and a narwhal.

By Roni Dengler
Jun 20, 2019 8:50 PMFeb 22, 2020 12:24 AM
Beluga Narwhal Hybrid Skull, Narluga - Natural History Museum of Denmark
The first “narluga” skull ever to be discovered. The hybrid mixes traits of its beluga and narwhal parents. (Credit: Mikkel Høegh Post, Natural History Museum of Denmark.)

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While visiting West Greenland in the 1980s, an Inuit hunter killed an odd-looking whale. He realized there was something unique about the animal, so he kept its skull. Years later in 1990, a researcher from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources spotted the specimen mounted on the hunter’s toolshed.

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