Greetings MARMAM community! Join us on Monday May 27th 2024 at 9:30 am AEST for the next ANZSCSMM Online Webinar: Ancestry testing of "Old Tom," a killer whale central to mutualistic interactions with human whalers - presented by Isabella M. Reeves.
This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is required. Register here: https://auckland.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAlfuyvpj8qGtfbIbB3IBKSMcErUrPyzRGI About this talk: Cooperative hunting between humans and killer whales (Orcinus orca) targeting baleen whales was reported in Eden, New South Wales, Australia, for almost a century. By 1928, whaling operations had ceased, and local killer whale sightings became scarce. A killer whale from the group, known as "Old Tom," washed up dead in 1930 and his skeleton was preserved. How these killer whales from Eden relate to other populations globally and whether their genetic descendants persist today remains unknown. We extracted and sequenced DNA from Old Tom using ancient DNA techniques. Genomic sequences were then compared with a global dataset of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. Old Tom shared a most recent common ancestor with killer whales from Australasia, the North Atlantic, and the North Pacific, having the highest genetic similarity with contemporary New Zealand killer whales. However, much of the variation found in Old Tom's genome was not shared with these widespread populations, suggesting ancestral rather than ongoing gene flow. Our genetic comparisons also failed to find any clear descendants of Tom, raising the possibility of local extinction of this group. We integrated Traditional Custodian knowledge to recapture the events in Eden and recognize that Indigenous Australians initiated the relationship with the killer whales before European colonization and the advent of commercial whaling locally. This study rectifies discrepancies in local records and provides new insight into the origins of the killer whales in Eden and the history of Australasian killer whales. About the presenters: Isabella M. Reeves is a PhD Candidate researching killer whale evolutionary ecology and conservation genomics at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. Open access to this article is available and can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article/114/6/598/7308443 We hope to see you there! The ANZSCSMM
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