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Stranding records are faithful reflection of live whale and dolphin...
Whales are the earth’s largest creatures, yet they are incredibly hard to study in the open ocean. For decades scientists have used boats, aircraft and even high cliffs to conduct visual surveys and...
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New fossil whale species raises mystery regarding why narwhals and belugas...
A newly described species of toothed whale that lived some 3-4 million years ago during the Pliocene, is causing scientists to reconsider what is known about its living cold-water relatives: narwhals...
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Scientists discover sensory organ in baleen whales that choreographs movement...
Lunge feeding in rorqual whales (a group that includes blue, humpback and fin whales) is unique among mammals, but details of how it works have remained elusive. Now, scientists from the...
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Exhibition: “Whales: From Bone to Book”
The Smithsonian Libraries will open its new exhibition “Whales: From Bone to Book” in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on May 25. This exhibition is a...
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100 Years of Whales @ Smithsonian!
Did you know the Smithsonian created the world’s first full cast of a whale? It was a blue whale exhibited in 1904 at the St. Louis Exposition. Since the nineteenth century, the Smithsonian has been...
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Ancient whales
This illustration by Carl Buell depicts Ocucajea picklingi (center) and Supayacetus muizoni (bottom), two ancient whales that lived off the Peruvian coast during the Eocene, between 56-34 million years...
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Details of ancient shark attack preserved in fossil whale bone
A fragment of whale rib found in a North Carolina strip mine is offering scientists a rare glimpse at the interactions between prehistoric sharks and whales some 3- to 4-million years ago during the...
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For a dentist, the narwhal’s smile is a mystery of evolution
When a dentist says “open wide,” he or she knows pretty much what they’ll find inside a patient’s mouth. But when a dentist peers into the mouth of an Arctic narwhal, all bets are off. “Nothing makes...
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Walrus whale 3-D skull scan
This image shows a 3-D scan of the type specimen of Odobenocetops, the walrus whale, in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The skull of this fossil dolphin relative was collected in...
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Ships need to slow down for whales in Gulf of Panama, scientists advise
For centuries Las Perlas Archipelago in the Gulf of Panama has been a natural wintering area for humpback whales. Most of the whales who visit here come from the Southern Hemisphere during a breeding...
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Rare whale beached in Hawaii infected with deadly marine-mammal virus
A rare Longman’s beaked whale (Indopacetus pacificus) found stranded on the Hawaiian island of Maui in 2010 has scientists in Hawaii on the alert for a deadly disease known as morbillivirus which can...
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Gray whale specimen an important addition to Natural History Museum collections
Rope, golf balls, sweat pants, bottles and aluminum cans are a few of the discarded items biologist Matt Klope says he has found inside the stomachs of the dead whales he has helped necropsy over the...
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Algae assassin found responsible for whale mass grave in Chile
It has all the hallmarks of a paleontological crime scene: a massive graveyard along a remote desert highway containing the fossil bones of at least 40 dead whales and a slew of other marine victims....
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Scientists map pathway from narwhals’ sensitive tusk to brain
Chip a tooth and expose a nerve and the result can be a searing sensitivity to hot and cold. The hard outer layer of a human tooth protects the sensitive nerves inside. The narwhal tusk is the...
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Commercial shipping lanes changed in Panama to save humpback whales
The Republic of Panama’s proposal to implement four Traffic Separation Schemes for commercial vessels entering and exiting the Panama Canal and ports was approved unanimously by the International...
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New fossil whale species raises mystery regarding why narwhals and belugas...
A newly described species of toothed whale that lived some 3-4 million years ago during the Pliocene, is causing scientists to reconsider what is known about its living cold-water relatives: narwhals...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For a dentist, the narwhal’s smile is a mystery of evolution
When a dentist says “open wide,” he or she knows pretty much what they’ll find inside a patient’s mouth. But when a dentist peers into the mouth of an Arctic narwhal, all bets are off. “Nothing makes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scientists discover sensory organ in baleen whales that choreographs movement...
Lunge feeding in rorqual whales (a group that includes blue, humpback and fin whales) is unique among mammals, but details of how it works have remained elusive. Now, scientists from the Smithsonian...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Walrus whale 3-D skull scan
This image shows a 3-D scan of the type specimen of Odobenocetops, the walrus whale, in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The skull of this fossil dolphin relative was collected in...
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