Old Tom's DNA used in ground-breaking killer whale research

Led by Australian researcher Isabella Reeves, who happens to be the only killer whale geneticist in Australasia, the DNA research seeks to provide new insights into the unique partnership between humans and killer whales at Twofold Bay.

Ms Reeves' research is attempting to unravel the history of Australasian killer whales, part of this includes whether the killers of Eden died out, or instead moved to fresh fields where there were greater opportunities and a better supply of prey.

As Ms Reeves has noted, the latter scenario would suggest that Old Tom's ancestors may still be found in Australian waters.

Ms Reeves came to visit Old Tom at the Eden Killer Whale Museum in July 2022. During her visit she and her research assistant Charlie White extracted DNA samples from one of Old Tom's teeth and his jawbone.

The two samples were taken from different parts of the skeleton so that they had the best chances of extracting enough quality DNA for sequencing.

Local historian Angela George said it had taken Ms Reeves and her assistant almost a full day to secure the samples which had ended up amounting to one gram of drilled bone powder.

Ms George said museum visitors had been fascinated to see the process and several had taken the opportunity to chat to Ms Reeves about her work.

During her visit to Eden, Ms Reeves also met with Thaua elder Steven Holmes.

Together they discussed and agreed on how with Ms Reeve's genetic expertise and Mr Holmes' insight into the First Nation's deep, age-old relationship between his people and the killer whales, they could add to and improve on what is known about the whales.

The pair will be collaborating on the upcoming research coming out of the DNA collection of Old Tom.

The DNA samples were transported from Eden to Flinders University in Adelaide and then flown overseas, arriving in Norway on September 5.

Ms Reeves will be spending the next weeks working on the samples with one of her PhD supervisors, Associate Professor Andrew Foote from the Department of Natural History at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Mr Foote is a globally renowned killer whale genomics expert that has an ancient DNA background. Together they hope to complete the lab work by the end of October.

Once completed the newly generated genome of Old Tom will be compared with other global populations.