The discovery of the first right whale south between the south

IN 2022, Carla Crossman was the analysis of southern right -whaling genes when she encountered something unexpected.

Decades ago, in 1989, researchers used special intersection arches to collect small samples of 10 southern whales in birth areas off the Valdez Peninsula in Argentina, as part of an effort to assess the genetic diversity of species. Crossman, a graduate student at St. Mary University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was working with those historical samples when she found herself stuck on the results of the DNA of one whale in particular: Eau10b.

Scientists who study wild animals need a few main numbers to measure the health of the population. How many individuals, for example? Among these, how many females are for males? This sex rate reveals whether the population is likely to grow.

After the DNA sequence of each whale, Crossman scanned animal chromosomes quickly to guess their sexes. With whales, humans and other mammals – as well as some fish and even plants such as Ginkgos and Kiwis – have one sexual chromosome and one chromosome, while females have two x chromosomes. Crossman data showed that Eau10B had Xs. “I was somewhat confident [Eau10b] It was a female.

The whales swim between the radar below the radar, if it is permissible to speak, because Cetaceans have internal genitalia.

But when Crossman examined its guess with routine sex technology, which is called a SRY test, the answer was not logical.

Scientists use this test to determine whether the animal holds the SRY (or the “Y Section Zone”), which helps to operate the development of males. Since the SRY gene is only on the Y Chromosome, the test of its presence is an easy way to conclude the animal’s gender.

Eau10B test show SRY. The whale was male.

Crossman turned into Third technology– A test of a group of genes called ZFX and ZFY that appears on X and Y. also It contains a dual dose of ZFX, the gene carries on the X chromosome. The result revealed that the Eau10B has a y chromosome y and Two X chromosomes, this means that the animal was neither male nor female. Eau10B was a whale between perfection –The first of its kind is known to scholars.

This mixture of sexual chromosomes occurs when the cell receives an additional version of X chromosome during the cell division. A similar event can lead to a female offspring with three X chromosomes, or males with one x chromosome and two y chromosomes.

Crossman does not know the number of southern right whales with XXY sex chromosomes may be there. Even the fate of Eau10B is unknown, because researchers did not specify the whale when they took the DNA sample in 1989. But the southern right whales can rise to up to 70 years, so Eau10B may still tour the globe and winter oceans off the Valdez Peninsula.

While animals are often among infertility and are unable to produce offspring to help the population to grow, says the beans Veluke, a historian at the University of Pennsylvania, who is studying the history of sexual classification, says that in social species such as whales, Intersex animals are likely to play unproductive roles that benefit the population in other ways.

The study of animals among cars has helped scientists a better understanding of how to form genes and hormones individuals during their development. Through the process of domestication of livestock, people knew about cows between cows for thousands of years. In Vanu’u, in the South Pacific, the island’s residents are sponsoring a unique pigment of pigs between the difference between the delicate tins. Recently, the researchers have also documented horses between perfection, dogs, mousses, sheep, fish, and many different types of invertebrates. Crossman says that animals between species are rare across species, but they are “more common than we thought historically.”

In humans, the composition of XXY chromosome is called Clainfielder syndrome It occurs in less than 0.1 percent of people – most of them know that they are male and may not even realize that they have unusual chromosomes.

Terminology and definitions used to talk about individuals from among the teams It changed over timeEspecially when referring to people. But according to Velocci, scientists use the term interex to describe the bodies that, regardless of species, cannot be easily classified as male or female.

In social species, animals between cars are likely to play unproductive roles that benefit the population.

All individuals are among the XXY chromosomes – the term includes individuals who have a set of properties arising from the differences in genetics, hormones and anatomy. The gender individual may have sexual organs or a physical appearance that is separated from the base. Some individuals, for example, have y chromosome and discounts, but their cells do not respond to male sex hormones, so their outer anatomy is more feminine.

Whales swim between the radar under the radar, in particular, because cytakin has internal genitalia. “Don’t often attach to the whale genital organs,” says Crossman. “Everything inside.” However, the scientists have previously found whales between the fin, adulthood, arc whales, short common dolphins, and whales that are in True.

“every time [researchers] “In this field or look at samples, they only continue to find these exceptions,” says Velocci.

But Felke says, he did not adapt scientific education. “XX and XY are they [taught as] The basis that everything may be deviated, instead of a possible contrast between many. “

For some of the well-studied species, such as a right-wing-right-whale-whale-whale-which is close to the southern right-whale-researchers guess the gender of the individual by monitoring behaviors, such as swimming with a new child, or clear external properties, such as the size and color of the genital wound. But for most whales, DNA tests provide the only answer.

However, the eu110B story shows that even the most routine sex tests are not perfect. By reducing sex to the presence or lack of one gene, scientists risk animals that do not accurately fall into a male and female. With modern leaps in genetic research, it is now easier to determine the Intersex animals by comparing the results from different tests. “We can only start searching,” says Crossman.

When scientists define the following animal intendx, this information is likely that this information is not managed or understood. But this individual, whether stupid or whale, will make another challenge to rigid definitions of sex. What a natural society sees is a box that is carefully drawn around a brutal and anarchist world, and everyone cannot contain it offers a wonderful glimpse of the true diversity of nature.

A copy of this story Originally the biographyAn independent magazine on nature and renewal, supported by the Academy of Sciences in California.

Lead Photo: Shutterstock

• Vanessa Minnk Martin

  Spread on April 1, 2025

  Vanessa Martin is a scientific writer and a former biologist in fish that lives on Vancouver, British Columbia.