Enigmatic megafauna: type D killer whale in the Southern Ocean

In 1955, 17 killer whales (Orcinus orca) stranded on a beach in Paraparaumu, New Zealand.From the grainy, black and white photographs (Fig. 1), it was clear that they were not typical killer whales: they were small, with narrow, pointy dorsal fins, a bulbous head, and the prominent white eyepatch normally found on killer whales was reduced to a tiny slip.Nothing like them had ever been reported -either before the stranding or for decades afterward.