video

Sea Lion Sickness

Both humans and sea lions get sick from eating fish and shellfish that have been...

slideshow

A Squalodontid Success

On a beach in Piña, Panama the tide is rolling out. Faint outlines of skeletal...

Photo

Ancient Sea Cow Vertebra

A fossil vertebra that a Smithsonian researcher's mother found while prospecting in...

Article

The Whale Graveyard Whodunit

One of the ocean's tiniest organisms often does the most harm. Microscopic algae...

Photo

The Digsite at Cerro Ballena

Chilean and Smithsonian paleontologists study several fossil whale skeletons at...

Personal Perspectives

Whale fossils on the mainland, and into a CT scanner

After a few long days of hard work on the island, we were finally able to excavate...

Personal Perspectives

Dispatches from the Field: Treacherous stream crossings and a new fossil find

We departed from Port Renfrew on Tuesday morning on the Michelle Diana, a boat...

Personal Perspectives

Excavating a "toothed" baleen whale from Vancouver Island

The whales that we see in today's world can broadly be split into two groups: those...

Photo

An Ancient Whale Skeleton, Unexcavated

Nick Pyenson, the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National...

Personal Perspectives

Smithsonian Scientists Describe a 'New' Fossil Whale

Monodontids, the group of whales that includes the belugas and narwhals swimming...

Personal Perspectives

The Discovery of Multispecies Communities of Seacows

Sirenians, or seacows, are a group of marine mammals that include manatees and...

Photo

Multispecies Communities of Seacows

Sirenians, or seacows, are a group of marine mammals that include manatees and...