Too old...

...to be playing softball with the students. I'll feel it in the morning. Regardless, it'll have to be some quick hits tonight.

Killer whales are currently Orcinus orca - one species. That may not be the case for long. Analysis of mDNA from tissue samples taken 139 orcas from around the world points to at least three different species. This supports observations based on color patterns and feeding behavior. Seems there be two different species in Antarctic waters, and another that feeds on marine mammals in the North Pacific.

A new fossil primate from Spain - Pliopithecus canmatensis. It's an 11 million year old member of the primates known as the catarrhines. Catarrhines includes two extant superfamilies, the Cercopithicoidea, known as the Old World monkeys, and the Hominoidea - that's us, the other great apes, and the gibbons. The new fossil belongs to another superfamily, the Pliopithecoidea, that diverged prior to the two extant ones. The find indicates that the pliopithecoids may have been the first of the catarrhines to make the move from Africa to Eurasia.