The week's good news: March 14, 2019

It wasn't all bad!

Killer whales.
(Image credit: Rasmus-Raahauge/iStock)

1. Scientists believe they found a new species of orca

For the first time ever, scientists found and studied the mysterious Type D killer whale in the wild. Robert Pitman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told National Geographic it's "highly likely" these animals, spotted in January in the stormy waters off the coast of Cape Horn, Chile, are a new species of orca. Type D killer whales have proven elusive; experts had never seen any live and had to rely on amateur photos and descriptions from fishermen. They studied a pod of roughly 25 Type D killer whales, and using a safe method, took a small piece of blubber and skin from one of the animals to test its DNA. Pitman says these orcas have been hard to study because they live in subantarctic waters. "If you're a large animal trying to hide from science, that's exactly where you'd want to do it," he said.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.