Only two other species, pilot and killer whales, are known to experience a menopause in a similar way to humans.
When he studied published genetic analyses of other whales, Whitehead found that sperm, pilot, and killer whales--species in which offspring spend their lives with their mothers and maternal relatives--have very low mtDNA diversity, less than one-fifth that of other whales.
Offshore, a variety of cetaceans are regularly recorded including minke whales, pilot whales, killer whales and bottle-nosed dolphins.
The pilot, titled "Killer Women," centers around Helfer's character, Molly Parker, the only female member of the Texas Rangers.
The Air Force justifiably brags that it has more than doubled the number of remotely piloted hunter-killer vehicles over Iraq and Afghanistan since last year.
Humans, pilot whales and killer whales are the only known species in which females have a prolonged period of menopause — a time of life when they cannot reproduce.
The Mirror, for instance, screams at us that the "Killer pilot suffered from depression", as if those five words are all we need to know.
Only female humans, pilot whales, and killer whales are known to go through menopause: At a certain age, they stop reproducing, but continue to lead long, productive lives.
In the current Science, Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, claims that an unusual pattern of genetic markers in sperm whales, pilot whales, and killer whales implies that matriarchs of those species teach their offspring as-yet-unidentified behaviors that give them a substantial survival advantage, a situation thus far documented only in humans.
"Killer Pilot Suffered From Depression," shouted the Mirror.
