video

Evolution of Whales Animation

Whales have existed for millions of years. Watch this animation, from the Sant...

Photo

Early Whale with Webbed Feet

This early whale was well suited to life at sea. But it also may have spent time on...

Photo

Elevator Rudists

These "elevator" rudists, an ancient bivalve, used one long heavy valve to anchor...

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Whales Returned to the Sea

Vertebrates evolved in the sea and eventually moved onto land. The ancestors of...

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The Whale Family Tree

This family tree shows how the ancestors of whales moved gradually from land to...

Personal Perspectives

Spirals in Time: A Walk at the Seashore

When I set out to write a book about mollusks (called Spirals in Time), I wasn't...

Article

Keeping An Ear Out For Whale Evolution

Large whales are notoriously hard to study. Except when rising to breathe, they...

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...

Personal Perspectives

Menopausal Moms: A Mammal Mystery

In honor of Mother's Day, the Citizens of the Sea blog salutes ocean-going mothers...

Article

Why a Tusk? The real-life unicorns of the sea and the tusks that make them famous

In the frigid Arctic Ocean, a mysterious toothed whale—the narwhal— resides...