<p>Evolutionary biologists have for the first time decoded the genetic lineage of a famous killer whale and a pod that once worked alongside whale hunters off the coast of Australia.</p>
<p>In the Australian tradition of claiming New Zealand’s celebrities as its own, Old Tom, the leader of a pod of killer whales that famously helped whalers hunt baleen whales in the 20<sup>th</sup> century, has ancestral links to modern-day killer whales in New Zealand, according to new DNA research.</p>
<p>Old Tom also shared a common ancestor with killer whales from Australasia, the North Pacific, and North Atlantic Oceans, but is most similar to modern New Zealand killer whales. However, most of Tom’s DNA code is not found in other killer whales globally suggesting that the killer whales of Eden may have become extinct locally.</p>
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