A wholphin is a rare fertile hybrid born from mating a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) (mother), and a false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens). Although they have been reported to exist in the wild, the first captive wholphin was born in 1945, where a bottlenose dolphin and a male false killer whale shared a pool.

The wholphin's size, color and shape are intermediate between the parent species. For example, an adult wholphin has 66 teeth - intermediate between a bottlenose (88 teeth) and false killer whale (44 teeth). They are smaller than a false killer whale but are larger than a normal bottlenose.

Normally, when two different, yet similar species mate, such as a female horse and a male donkey forming a mule, the progeny is expec ...

The world's newest island, Niijima, keeps on growing, and is now eight times the size it was when it first emerged off the coast of Japan on 20 November. Having merged with its neighbouring uninhabited island, Nishino Shima - which sat 500 metres away in November - the pair bears an uncanny resemblance to Snoopy the cartoon dog.

A fascinating optical illusion can be found at the southwestern tip of Mauritius Island. If seen from above, this part of the island seems to be melting into the ocean, forming a spectacular underwater waterfall. We owe this to a runoff of sand and silt deposits (the light-coloured portion of the water) and the downward pull of the receding waves.

Female lemon sharks return to the place they were born almost 15 years later to give birth to their own young, a longer-term study has revealed, confirming "homing" behaviour for the first time in sharks.

The wolphin is the extraordinary result of breeding a female bottle-nosed dolphin with a male false killer whale. In captivity there are two occurrences, both are in the Sea Life Park in Hawaii. Unlike other hybrids, the wolphin is fertile.

In Japan, firefly squid - or hotaru ika, as the locals call them - rise 600 metres (2,000 feet) to the surface of the water and light it up with their electric blue bioluminescence.

Lingcods are sometimes found with amazing, edible blue flesh. A bile pigment called biliverdin seems to be the cause, but exactly how it gets into the flesh of the fish remains a mystery.