Global Warming Encouraging Hybridization?

[jack]

"An odd-looking white bear with patches of brown fur was shot by hunters in 2006 and found to be a cross between a polar bear and a grizzly bear. Apparently, grizzlies were moving north into polar bear territory. Since then, several hybrid animals have appeared in and around the Arctic, including narwhal-beluga whales and mixed porpoises."

"Pizzlies and Narlugas - When hunters encountered a hybrid of a polar bear and a grizzly in 2006, Kelly's colleagues remarked that the incident was just a fluke. But as Kelly delved into the issue, he found more evidence of similar anomalies. In 2009, a cross between a bowhead and a right whale was spotted in the Bering Sea, between Alaska and Russia. And a museum specimen in Alaska attests to breeding between spotted seals (Phoca largha) and ribbon seals (Histriophoca fasciata), which belong to different genera, a scientific classification of organisms that is broader than the species level."

Hybrid polar-grizzly bear a sign of Arctic's future? - U.S. news - Environment - LiveScience - msnbc.com

[Equilibrium]

Ohhhhhhhhhh jack!!! Excellent find!!! This illustrates beautifully how many of us can be led to jump to conclusions too fast, Grizzly-Polar Bear Hybrid Found -- But What Does It Mean?, “It's of interest because it's rare, but that's kind of it," said Rosa Meehan, the chief of marine mammal management with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska.
"I don't think there's more to it than that.” National Geographic was interestingly enough one of the 1st to comment on this but… it's still pretty rare. Check this out, Phylogeography of brown bears (Ursus arctos) of Al... [Mol Phylogenet Evol. 1996] - PubMed result and Ancient DNA Analyses Reveal High Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Diversity and Parallel Morphological Evolution of Late Pleistocene Cave Bears ? Mol Biol Evol. We'll have to wait and see where the seal deal leads!!!