It seems that monsters with hybrid appearances are not exclusive to Greek mythology.

The finding of a dolphin in Greece that seemed to have two “thumbs” is perplexing scientists as it is the only occurrence of such an aquatic abnormality they have ever seen.

Scientist Alexandros Frantzis, president of the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, emailed LiveScience, saying, “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.”

While performing boat surveys in the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea last summer, he and the study team saw the digit-sporting dolphin twice.

It was the only dolphin in the gulf from the 1,300 striped species to consistently give researchers the thumbs up.
Similar to a marine adaptation of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the dolphin’s peculiar appendages resembling thumbs seem to have not hindered its acceptance by the pod.

Frantzis, who took pictures of the unusual aquatic phenomenon, told researchers that the cetacean was “swimming, leaping, bow-riding, playing” with other dolphins.

The scientists believe that the genetic abnormality resulting from constant inbreeding, rather than disease, is the reason of the thumbs of maritime hitchhikers, despite the fact that they are definitely weird.

Lisa Noelle Cooper, an associate professor of mammalian anatomy at Northeast Ohio Medical University, concurred with the assessment, stating that it is likely the result of a changed genetic program that shapes the flipper during calf development because the defect affects both the left and right flippers.
It’s interesting to note that all cetaceans, which includes dolphins, whales, and porpoises, have forearms and “fingers” that resemble humans. This is a vestige of their evolutionary past, when they were four-legged terrestrial creatures.

But these marine gloves are hidden from view like a blubbery glove because they are covered in flippers.

Cooper argues that the thumb-bearer in question was born without fingers or the tissue sheath due to a congenital birth abnormality, leaving it with only a thumb and its “ring finger.”

The scientist claims that even though the huge digit may have a bone, it isn’t functional.