· An international team of researchers found a couple dozen of mysterious killer whale roaming in the oceans off southern Chile.
· Scientists are waiting for DNA tests from a tissue sample to answer the species question.
· They likely mostly eat fish, not marine mammals like seals, as other killer whales do.
· They are so different they probably can’t breed with other killer whales and are likely a new species.
· At 20 to 25 feet long, they are slightly smaller than most killer whales.
· In the Southern hemisphere, killer whales are considered all one species, classified in types A through C. This one is called type D or sub-Antarctic killer whales.
· Scientists have heard about these distinctive whales ever since a mass stranding in New Zealand in 1955.
· Scientists initially thought it could be one family of killer whales that had a specific mutation.
Source : The Hindu
10.03.2019