Speciation in Nature
Hybridization takes two species that are evolved to be adapted to a specific environment. If two species from different environments interbreed, this could cause those mixed offspring to be less adapted to both environments, and the fitness of the hybrid will be lower than the fitness of their parents.A lot of zoo animal type hybrids, who may never mate in the wild, give birth to offspring that have multiple medical issues, live shorter lives, or are not able to reproduce.The only example of successful hybridization a marine mammal is the clymene dolphin (maybe, there was conflicting evidence online). The sources I looked through said it was possibly a hybrid of the spinner dolphin and the striped dolphin, both of which have habitats that allow for them to interact with one another. Examples of mammals in nature were hard to find because it can be hard to tell whether or not an animal is a hybrid or not (cryptic species, hard to test). There are also records of bottlenose dolphin/ false killer whale hybrids that exist in nature and also a viable hybrid that lives in captivity; the hybrid had two offspring that both passed. The resource listed below concerning the study of clymene dolphin hybrids claims that the genetic diversity created by hybridization can be beneficial. It can introduce genetic variation and create new species to fill new ecological niches. There are more species of dolphins, whales, and porpoises breeding and having viable offspring but its not common. For the hybridization to be beneficial and create viable offspring, maybe its just somewhat up to chance and the separate evolutionary paths each species takes and the types of selection acting upon both.
Wholphin / Wolphin - WHALE FACTS
Don't call it a wholphin: first sighting of rare whale-dolphin hybrid | Whales | The Guardian
Hybrid Speciation in a Marine Mammal: The Clymene Dolphin (Stenella clymene) (nih.gov)
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