A new species of killer whale may have been discovered after two dozen distinctively different orcas were found off southern Chile – scientists are waiting for DNA results to confirm the breakthrough.
Marine ecologist Robert Pitman, who was part of the team that spotted the whales in the icy waters off Cape Horn at the tip of South America in January this year said the differences to other orcas are unmistakable. The white eye patch is tiny, their heads are a bit more rounded and less sleek, dorsal fins are narrower and pointed and the whales are also slightly smaller than most killer whales.
The team spent three hours observing and collecting data on the whales and along with the tissue samples, obtained video footage of the 30-strong pod and recordings of their calls.
Dubbed the Type D killer whale, the species previously existed only in tourist photographs and fishing stories dating back 60 years where fishermen had seen the killer whales poaching their fish. It was just a few years ago, in 2015, researchers obtained the first known video footage of the killer whales and as they live in turbulent, frigid seas just outside the Antarctic circle, researchers have proposed “subantarctic killer whale” as a common name.
We are certainly looking forward to the genetic analysis results!
