Article

Flippers or Feet? An Extinct Mammal May Have Been Replaced By Today's Sea Cows

In the seagrass beds and kelp forests of the Oligocene-Miocene transition, nearly...

Article

Unearthing History: Mary Anning's Hunt for Prehistoric Ocean Giants

You may not have realized it, but you’ve been acquainted with Mary Anning since...

Article

The Whale Graveyard Whodunit

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

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...

Personal Perspectives

Smithsonian Scientists Describe a 'New' Fossil Whale

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

Personal Perspectives

New Archaeocetes from Peru Are the Oldest Fossil Whales from South America

The evolution of whales represents one of the great stories in macroevolution. It's...

Personal Perspectives

Fossil Whale Found, Excavated, Jacketed, and Returned to STRI!

Jorge and I packed up the night we arrived in Panama with Aaron O'Dea and his team...

When Did Today’s Whales Get So Big?

More recently than you might think, say scientists who scoured the fossil...

Shark Teeth Tell Great White Shark Evolution Story

For the last 150 years, paleontologists have debated the origins of the great white...

Archaeologists Study Early Whaling Community in Quebec, Canada

For over a decade, Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center archaeologist, William...