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Ancient gray whales may have been homebodies
A gray whale calf. (Photo by Patty Geary) The annual migration of gray whales from northern Alaska to Baja California, a round-trip of some 10,000 miles, is one of the most extreme examples of...
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Stranding records are faithful reflection of live whale and dolphin...
The skeleton of a rorqual whale lies in the sand along the shoreline of northern Namibia. (Photo by Lisa Levin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) Whales are the earth’s largest creatures, yet they...
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Scientists discover the largest assembly of whale sharks ever recorded
Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are often thought to be solitary behemoths that live and feed in the open ocean. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and colleagues, however, have found that this...
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Varied diet has allowed gray whales to survive millions of years, study reveals
Gray whales survived many cycles of global cooling and warming over the past few million years, likely by exploiting a more varied diet than they do today, according to a new study by University of...
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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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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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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. The mouth of a...
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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 Smithsonian...
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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...
View ArticleReplicating whale fossils found in Chile
The post Replicating whale fossils found in Chile appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.
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Gray whale specimen an important addition to Natural History Museum collections
Laid out on the floor of the Marine Mammal Collection building at the Garber Facility in Suitland, Md., the recently acquired skeleton of a gray whale is a much welcome addition. The large skull at...
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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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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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Five amazing fossil finds that will make you want to be a fossil hunter
Smithsonian intern Catalina Suarez Gomez excavating a fossil in the Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia. What do you want to be when you grow up? Would you want to explore the world searching for long lost...
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New study may help free whales from fishing rope entanglement
This four-year-old male right whale entangled in heavy fishing rope was spotted in February 2014, 40 miles east of Jacksonville, FL. Florida Fish and Wildlife biologists removed the fishing rope....
View ArticleWhere Dead Whales Go To Live: Smithsonian Whale Warehouse
Seeing a massive skeleton on display in a museum gallery is the last step in a long journey from living animal to educational specimen. Where do these animals come from and how are they collected and...
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Whale tagging in Southeast Pacific provides data for species protection
Humpback whales have distinctive tail markings that scientists use to track individuals as they migrate long distances. (Photo by Anne Gordon, Whale Watching Panama) Whales from both poles migrate long...
View ArticleWhy the Smithsonian has world’s largest whale bone collection
Did you know the Smithsonian’s museum support center is home to the largest collection of whale bones EVER? Madeline Sofia from Joe’s Big Idea takes a tour, talks whale bones and what they can teach...
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Meet the world’s weirdest whale
Narwhals breaching for air in an open space in the Arctic sea ice. (Photo by Glenn Williams) Swimming in the frigid waters of the Arctic and surfacing in narrow gaps in the sea ice to breathe, the...
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