{"id":60458,"date":"2025-10-08T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T05:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/60458\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T05:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T05:00:12","slug":"spiral-tusks-big-square-heads-strange-pink-skin-10-weirdest-dolphins-and-whales-on-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/60458\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiral tusks, big square heads, strange pink skin: 10 weirdest dolphins and whales on the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

When most of us think of whales and dolphins, we imagine elegant blue whales, striking orcas<\/a>, or the beautifully streamlined bottlenose dolphin. But the whale and dolphin family (collectively called cetaceans) contains over 90 living species; many of them unusual and little-known, and some stranger than fiction.<\/p>\n

From spiral tusks to big square heads, these oddities reveal how evolution<\/a> thrives in the ocean\u2019s depths. Here are ten of the more wonderfully weird whales and dolphins alive today.<\/p>\n

Weirdest dolphins and whales in the world
\nNarwhal
\n\"\"Getty<\/p>\n

No list of unusual whales is complete without the\u00a0narwhal, nicknamed the ‘unicorn of the sea.’<\/a>\u00a0This Arctic-dweller sports a single spiral tusk \u2013 actually an elongated upper-left tooth \u2013 that can grow nearly three meters long. Scientists now know that it\u2019s packed with sensory nerves, allowing narwhals to detect changes in water temperature, salinity and pressure. Despite its mythical appearance, the tusk is not used for jousting but for subtle communication, sensing the environment and even play.<\/p>\n

Amazon river dolphin
\n\"AmazonGetty<\/p>\n

Unlike sleek grey oceanic dolphins, the endangered\u00a0Amazon river dolphin \u2013 or\u00a0boto<\/a> \u2013 is large, robust and strikingly pink. Their oddly flexible necks (unlike ocean dolphins, they have unfused vertebrae) let them twist through flooded forests of the Amazon Basin. Locals weave legends about shape-shifting botos transforming into handsome men to seduce villagers: a myth as haunting as the river dolphin\u2019s smiles.<\/p>\n

Sperm whale\u00a0
\n\"\"Getty<\/p>\n

The\u00a0sperm whale<\/a>\u00a0is famous for its size \u2013 males can exceed 18 meters \u2013 but their massive square heads are particularly odd. Nearly one-third of a sperm whale body length, the head houses the spermaceti organ, a waxy structure that generates powerful\u00a0echolocation<\/a>\u00a0clicks and is also thought to help with buoyancy. These whales dive deeper than 2,000 meters and for periods of an hour or so to hunt giant squid, making them one of the most extreme predators on Earth.<\/p>\n

Irrawaddy dolphin\u00a0
\n\"\"Getty<\/p>\n

Part dolphin, part cartoon character, the\u00a0Irrawaddy dolphin\u00a0looks almost unfinished: a rounded forehead, no beak and a perpetual half-smile.<\/p>\n

Found in coastal waters and some freshwater rivers in Southeast Asia, these dolphins are remarkably shy and slow, often swimming in pairs rather than large pods. They look a little like baby belugas and, like the beluga, they can\u00a0move their lips and like to squirt water from their mouths into the air when socialising and fishing.<\/p>\n

In some places such as Myanmar, fishers once worked cooperatively with Irrawaddy dolphins, signalling each other to corral fish.<\/p>\n

It is one of the\u00a0rarest dolphins in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beaked whales
\n\"\"Cuvier’s beaked whale. Getty<\/p>\n

If whales had a secret society, it would be the\u00a0beaked whales<\/a>. With at least 24 species, they\u2019re some of the least-known mammals on Earth. Beaked whales are deep-diving specialists: the Cuvier\u2019s beaked whale holds the record for the longest recorded dive of any mammal \u2013 over 3,600 meters deep and nearly four hours long. Their long snouts, bizarre jawlines and often only two visible teeth make them look prehistoric.<\/p>\n

Beluga whale\u00a0
\n\"\"Getty<\/p>\n

Snow-white and highly sociable, the Arctic\u00a0beluga whale<\/a>\u00a0is also called the ‘sea canary’ for its wide range of whistles, chirps and clicks. But the beluga’s oddest trait is probably the melon \u2013 a fatty, rounded forehead that belugas can change in shape, squishing and bulging as they echolocate. Their gregarious nature and bizarre expressions make them one of the most charismatic, yet strangest, whales alive.<\/p>\n

Pilot whale\u00a0
\n\"PilotGetty<\/p>\n

Pilot whales<\/a>\u00a0look like giant dolphins with bulbous foreheads, but their strangeness lies in their social structure. They live in tight-knit pods of hundreds, sometimes mass-stranding together in heartbreaking numbers. These whales demonstrate extreme loyalty, often refusing to abandon a sick or stranded podmate even if it risks their own lives: a behaviour that baffles scientists and evokes deep empathy.<\/p>\n

Hourglass dolphin\u00a0
\n\"\"Getty<\/p>\n

The hourglass dolphin\u2019s\u00a0striking appearance makes them\u00a0look like they were created by a graphic designer.\u00a0They prefer the cold and live in deep Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters \u2013 in fact, they are the only small dolphin regularly found south of the Antarctic Convergence, the line where cold and warm water meets.<\/p>\n

They are also very fast, incredibly boisterous and enjoy surfing on the waves created by boats. As well as being beautiful to look at, they create a lot of spray while travelling at the surface of the water.<\/p>\n

Chinese white dolphin
\n\"\"Getty<\/p>\n

Also called the\u00a0Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, this species is striking for having bubblegum-pink skin \u2013 a colour that intensifies with age (adults may be grey or\u00a0white). Found around Southeast Asia, including near Hong Kong, their unusual hue comes not from pigment but from blood vessels close to the skin\u2019s surface, which help with thermoregulation. Their playful leaps against urban backdrops make them one of the ocean\u2019s most surreal sights.<\/p>\n

They once lived along the coasts from China to southeast Asia and as far west as India, but are sadly vanishing from many regions due to human threats.<\/p>\n

Bowhead whale
\n\"\"Vicki Beaver, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA FIsheries, Marine Mammal Permit#14245, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

Living exclusively in the Arctic, the\u00a0bowhead whale\u00a0has an enormous, bow-shaped skull that can break through sea ice more than half a meter thick. But its weirdest trait isn\u2019t physical \u2013 it\u2019s temporal.<\/p>\n

Bowheads are the longest-lived mammals on Earth, with some individuals estimated to be over 200 years old. In their lifetimes, they have can witnessed shifting ice ages, industrial whaling eras and climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When one individual was killed by native Alaskan hunters in 2007, it still had an old whaling harpoon from the 1800s embedded in its flesh, indicating that the whale had survived another 100 years after being harpooned.<\/p>\n

Why being weird matters<\/p>\n

These unusual cetaceans aren\u2019t just curiosities \u2013 they highlight the diversity of life in our oceans and rivers. Each strange adaptation, from melons to spiral tusks, reflects millions of years of evolutionary adaptation. They remind us that the sea is home to far more\u00a0than common dolphins leaping at sunset or the mighty blue whale.<\/p>\n

For science lovers, these weird and wonderful whales and dolphins are proof that nature is endlessly inventive. And for all of us, they\u2019re a reminder that the oceans still teem with mysteries waiting to be understood \u2013 and protected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When most of us think of whales and dolphins, we imagine elegant blue whales, striking orcas, or the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-60458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}