Orca Fans - fascinating encounter of Antarctica Friday with ~12 of the very rare Type D orcas; they have tiny eyepatches, bulbous heads, shorter narrow dorsal fins - and are possibly a new species! Genetic material was collected from a Type D orca that stranded in 1955; they were not documented again for nearly 50 years, and there have only a few sightings since then. A complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of this orca was compared with genetic samples from 139 other killer whales from around the world; researchers estimate the Type-D orca split from other killer whales almost 400,000 years ago! This study provides the first genetic support of Type-D potentially being a distinct subspecies or species of killer whale, the researchers wrote in their 2013 paper. NOTE: our orcas most closely resemble Antarctica Type B orcas. natureworldnews/articles/2713/20130629/mutant-type-d-orca-new-species-killer-whale.htm Link to this weeks very rare encounter by Sea Shepherd, including photos: https://facebook/seashepherdglobal/photos/pcb.10152952579478259/10152952570493259/?type=1&theater
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 04:29:23 +0000
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