WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Older mothers may do a better job raising their children than younger, less-experienced moms, at least among killer whales, researchers reported on Monday.

They studied 30 years of data to show that calves born to the oldest killer whales were 10 percent more likely to survive the critical first year of life than calves born to younger mothers.

“Older mothers appear to be better mothers, producing calves with higher survival rates,” Eric Ward of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle and colleagues wrote in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.

Killer whale females become mature at around 15 and stop reproducing at around 40.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA extended the mission of the busy Phoenix lander on Monday, saying it will operate until it dies in the cold, dark Martian winter.

The lander found evidence that the chemical makeup of the dust on the surface of Mars resembles that of sea water, adding to evidence that liquid water that once may have supported life flowed on the planet’s surface.

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