The Arabian Sea humpback whale’s unique song has long led scientists to believe that the animal was a subspecies of its own. Now, genetic research shows that the endangered mammal is distinct from other whale populations.The study led by the US's Wildlife Conservation Society and the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) compared genetic samples from Arabian Sea humpback whales with populations from across the world’s oceans.It found “compelling evidence” that the whale had its own evolutionary lineage, supporting its potential recognition as a fourth subspecies of humpback whale.Researchers analysed mitochondrial DNA from 2,285 humpback whales. The results, published on Tuesday in Frontiers in Marine Science, revealed high levels of genetic differences between the Arabian Sea population and the three currently recognised humpback whale subspecies of the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern Hemisphere. This indicates that the gene flow between them had been limited. The Arabian Sea population also showed the lowest genetic diversity among the ocean regions examined. The Arabian Sea whale is now believed to have evolved tens of thousands of years ago, with different groups showing estimated divergence times ranging from about 43,000 to 113,000 years ago.The next step will be to have the subspecies recognised formally by the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s Taxonomy Committee. Th...
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