Scientists have finally discovered what they believe to be a new species of killer whale.
Tales of the mysterious whale have been spoken of for years throughout the scientific community, but no one had ever seen one—until now.
Not just one, but several dozen of this new whales species were spotted off the coast of southern Chile. Though the test results have yet to come in, and some are skeptical that it’s an entirely new species, scientists are sure it’s a never-before-documented killer whale.
“The type D killer whale lives in the most inhospitable waters on the planet. It’s a good place to hide.” Robert Pitman, a NOAA marine ecologist in San Diego, told the Associated Press. “This is the most different-looking killer whale I’ve ever seen.”
So what’s so different about it? For starters the killer whale’s signature white eye patch, normally quite large, is tiny and almost invisible on some of the type D killer whales. This variant also has a rounder head and narrower dorsal fins that are pointed.
Pitman says that local fisherman have had 200-pound fish snatched away by the whale, leading him to believe that, unlike the standard orca, these whales don’t eat mammals like seals.
Even though he believes we should wait to name it a new species until the lab results come in, he says it’s “pretty remarkable that there are still many things out there in the ocean like a huge killer whale that we don’t know about.”
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