Uhen Lab

Nice article on the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History's impressive fossil and extant whale collection. The video features Smithsonian Paleobiology Nick Pyenson talking about the collection, its history and its uniqueness

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/10/12/the-bones-in-the-smithsonians-whale-warehouse-are-relics-of-a-lost-world/?hpid=hp_local-news_smithsonian-1245pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

The bones in the Smithsonian’s ‘whale warehouse’ are relics of a lost world How 20th century whaling turned the abundance of the Antarctic into a killing field, and the NMNH warehouse into “a collection that cannot be made again."

http://satlw2017.naturkundemuseum.berlin

Also, for those interested, mark your calendars for a trip to Berlin this coming April!

Secondary Adaptations of Tetrapods to Life in Water 2017

https://peerj.com/articles/2479/

Then a shoutout to our colleague Olivier Lambert for their new beaked whales from South America!

New beaked whales from the late Miocene of Peru and evidence for convergent evolution in stem and crown Ziphiidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti) The Ziphiidae (beaked whales) represent a large group of open-ocean odontocetes (toothed cetaceans), whose elusive and deep diving behavior prevents direct observation in their natural habitat. Despite their generally large body size, broad geographical distribution, and high species number, ziphiid...