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 20th century, has ancestral links to modern-day killer whales in New Zealand, according to new DNA research.

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.

Known as the killers of Eden, Old Tom and his family would help whalers hunt their target and were rewarded with the lips and tongues from the whale carcass. This is known as the "Law of the Tongue."

This legendary relationship between the whalers and Old Tom's family persisted and developed a strong bond across many generations of whalers. Measuring 6.7 meters in length and weighing six tons, Old Tom is now on display in the Eden Killer Whale Museum after washing up on shore in 1930.

Led by Ph.D. Candidate Isabella Reeves at Flinders University and the Cetacean Research Centre, a global research team undertook an ambitious journey relying on ancient DNA techniques to attempt to trace Old Tom's genetic lineage through DNA sequencing and comparing his DNA with killer whales globally.