saltycetaceans - Tumblr blog

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Posted too much homestuck as of recent, have to level it out with some whale art

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Kiska, always in my heart and she is dearly missed

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Orca. Filmed in Puget Sound, USA. From Ocean Stories - Dolphins and Whales (2015).

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Resident orca. Filmed in Puget Sound, USA. From Ocean Stories - Dolphins and Whales (2015).

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I love the diversity of Southern Ocean killer whales 🫶

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Going back to my roots and posting more killer whale art

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I made some orca sticker sheets!! Maybe that seems random but I'm obsessed with orcas lately 🥰 And I've wanted to do sticker sheets for a while!

These are handmade, so there's only a few available on my shop. 🌊 Reblogs appreciated! 💕💗💖

Huge thanks to @cavetoonist who basically did everything with their amazing sticker-making skills!!! 🥺💞 So excited to have more sticker-making parties in the future 😂

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Orca swimming in shallow water. Filmed in New Zealand. From BBC Natural World - The Woman who swims with Killer Whales (2011).

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Orca surfacing. Filmed in New Zealand. From BBC Natural World - The Woman who swims with Killer Whales (2011).

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PICT2921 - August 2007

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Orca diving. Filmed in New Zealand. From BBC Natural World - The Woman who swims with Killer Whales (2011).

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Antarctic Orcas

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🚨 A team of scientists, led by Phil Morin of NOAA, have published a new paper formally proposing two “new” species of killer whale: Bigg’s killer whales (Orcinus rectipinna) and resident killer whales (Orcinus ater).🚨

More than fifty years ago, researchers began studying the killer whales found off the west coast of North America. One keen-eyed scientist, Dr. Michael Bigg, noticed that there appeared to be two kinds of killer whales: a smaller, more gregarious form that fed on fish and a larger, stealthier type that fed on marine mammals. He and his colleagues dubbed the fish-eaters “resident” killer whales and the mammal-eaters “transient” killer whales (who were later renamed Bigg’s killer whales in his honor).

Two female Bigg’s killer whales in Washington (top) and a male and female resident killer whale in Alaska (bottom)

Many decades later, scientists have been hard at work trying to resolve whether or not these two forms are different species. It is not an easy task. This requires a thorough investigation into many factors, including evolutionary history, genetics, morphology, ecology, and behavior. In this paper, the researchers lay out all of the evidence and conclude that these two forms warrant elevation to species status.

As newly proposed species, both need new scientific names. There have been numerous killer whale species proposed and described in the past by other naturalists and researchers, including those in the North Pacific. Unfortunately, there are no type specimens— individual specimens upon which the first descriptions of a species are based—available for killer whales previously described from the North Pacific, so the researchers were left to examine drawings and illustrations of killer whales in the North Pacific in the late 1800s by Scammon and Cope.

The authors propose “Orcinus rectipinnus” for Bigg’s killer whales and “Orcinus ater” for resident killer whales. “Rectipinnus” presumably refers to tall dorsal fins, and “ater” means “black” or “dark” in Latin. Of note is the fact that a female killer whale from California originally examined and described by Scammon as “Orcinus rectipinnus” had seals in her stomach, suggesting she was a Bigg’s killer whale.

In addition, the authors note they are consulting with Indigenous tribes for a new common name for resident killer whales.

What’s next? In marine mammal biology, proposed taxonomic changes are reviewed by the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s taxonomy committee. If accepted, these species revisions become “official.” This has been an eagerly awaited paper by many in the field of killer whale biology and it is a great accomplishment, made possible by decades of research by scientists around the world.

A big thank you to lead author Phil Morin for letting me preview the manuscript and for answering my numerous questions in preparation for this post!

Read the paper here!

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Косатка Ная. Москвариум, 19 марта 2024

Naya the Killer Whale. Moskvarium, March 19, 2024