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![Smithsonian researchers eat a meal in preparation for a fossil excavation](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_small/public/2023-11/Team_Breakfast_Pyenson_small.jpg.webp?itok=HD1SScLI)
slideshow
A Squalodontid Success
On a beach in PiƱa, Panama the tide is rolling out. Faint outlines of skeletal......![A 3-D reconstruction of the skull of a fin whale fetus. A 3-D reconstruction of the skull of a fin whale fetus.](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/Yamato_Striking_Image_USNM268884.jpg.webp?itok=AqVz8n4B)
Article
Keeping An Ear Out For Whale Evolution
Large whales are notoriously hard to study. Except when rising to breathe, they......
March 2015
![Desmostylia A hippopotamus-like creature swims underwater](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/Desmostylia.jpg.webp?itok=bIRBFWJr)
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 An Extinct Mammal May Have Been Replaced By Today's Sea Cows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......
August 2016
![Gabor Szathmary secures one of the plaster jackets containing a fossil "toothed" mysticete that was excavated on Vancouver Island.](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/fossil-plaster-jacket-pyenson-web.jpg.webp?itok=IYfsrzQX)
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......
May 2012
![A researcher holds an arm bone from a "toothed" mysticete whale from Vancouver Island.](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/pyenson-vancouver-island.jpg.webp?itok=zrGgdK3z)
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......
May 2012
![An Ancient Whale Skeleton, Unexcavated Nick Pyenson points to a skull and skeleton of a fossil whale.](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/Nick-Pyenson-Fossil-Whale4.jpg.webp?itok=Z3GAlZtl)
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:...
May 2012
![An illustration of a recently discovered species of Monodontid, Bohaskaia monodontoides, and its beluga and narwhale relatives](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/Bohaskaia_illustration_Carl_Buell.jpg.webp?itok=PDjGwpV5)
Personal Perspectives
Smithsonian Scientists Describe a 'New' Fossil Whale
Monodontids, the group of whales that includes the belugas and narwhals swimming......
March 2012
![Offshore Peru, during the Eocene (~56-34 million years ago), showing two archaeocetes (ancient whales): Ocucajea picklingi and Supayacetus muizon.](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/Smithsonian_Peru_Eo_Final_test_8_Sept.jpg.webp?itok=idH3GSUj)
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....
September 2011
![Fossil Whale Digsite at Cerro Ballena, Chile](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/LaFamilia_Ground_CerroBallena_0.jpg.webp?itok=gOIZgecs)
Article
The Whale Graveyard Whodunit
One of the ocean's tiniest organisms often does the most harm. Microscopic algae......
March 2014
![Smithsonian scientists race the tide the excavate an ancient whale fossil entombed in rock](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/8077_small.jpg.webp?itok=oWm2e_XT)
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......
June 2011
![Smithsonian Scientists Dig a Trench Around a squalodontid Skull](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_large/public/2023-11/Dig_begins_4974_small.jpg.webp?itok=WCTYBIN8)
Personal Perspectives
Expedition to Excavate a Fossil Whale
My graduate student Jorge and I are departing today for Panama, to excavate a......
June 2011