Rare Dolphin With 'Thumbs' Spotted In Greek Gulf, Researchers Surprised

Scientists are intrigued by a strange dolphin spotted in the Gulf of Corinth in Greece that has hook-shaped "thumbs" carved out of its flippers. The mammal was found roaming by researchers from the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute on two occasions during boat surveys, reported Live Science. However, the unusual shape of its flippers had no effect on the dolphin's speed as it kept pace with the rest of its pod and was seen "swimming, leaping, bow-riding, playing" with other mammals.

"It was the very first time we saw this surprising flipper morphology in 30 years of surveys in the open sea and also in studies while monitoring all the stranded dolphins along the coasts of Greece for 30 years," Alexandros Frantzis, the scientific coordinator and president of the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, told Live Science.

He was the one who clicked pictures of the thumbed dolphin.

Mr Frantzis' team said there are 1,300 striped dolphins in the gulf, but only one with the unique shape of the flipper.

Mr Frantzis said the unusual flipper "does not look like illness at all" but "the expression of some rare and irregular genes that cropped up due to constant interbreeding".

The statement was made in reference to the shape of the Gulf of Corinth, a semi-enclosed pocket of the Ionian Sea that is sandwiched between the Greek mainland and the Peloponnese peninsula. It is home to several mixed-species dolphins.

Lisa Noelle Cooper, an expert in mammalian anatomy, agreed with the assessment that the dolphin's defect is likely rooted in its genes.

"Given that the defect is in both the left and right flippers, it is probably the result of an altered genetic program that sculpts the flipper during development as a calf," she told the outlet.