Uhen Lab

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30435-9

Congratulations to our colleague Olivier Lambert for the earliest Mysticete!

Earliest Mysticete from the Late Eocene of Peru Sheds New Light on the Origin of Baleen Whales Lambert et al. describe a new toothed cetacean from the late Eocene of Peru. Being the oldest known baleen whale relative (Mysticeti), its skeletal morphology provides crucial information about the archaeocete-neocete transition, suggesting a specialization toward suction and possibly benthic feedin...

For today's , enjoy one of the rarest whales on earth!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/03/07/one-of-the-worlds-rarest-whales-has-been-caught-on-film-for-the-first-time/?utm_term=.492cef4c436b

Caught on film for the first time: One of the world’s rarest whales Students captured images of the True's beaked cetacean, which spends about 92 percent of its time below the sea's surface.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967064516303873

More beaked whales + more South American fossils = win!

A new species of Africanacetus (Odontoceti: Ziphiidae) found on the deep ocean floor off the coast of Brazil A fossil skull of a beaked whale was newly collected by a manned submersible from the São Paulo Ridge of the Atlantic floor about 2900 m deep off the coast of Brazil. It was found in the middle of the manganese nodules on the seafloor. The whale fossil can be dated sometime between the middle Miocen...

And something a little more appropriate for this . Major congrats to Travis Park and coauthors for this one!

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1848/20162528?etoc

Low-frequency hearing preceded the evolution of giant body size and filter feeding in baleen whales Living baleen whales (mysticetes) produce and hear the lowest-frequency (infrasonic) sounds among mammals. There is currently debate over whether the ancestor of crown cetaceans (Neoceti) was able to detect low frequencies. However, the lack of information on the most archaic fossil mysticetes has p...

New developmental mechanisms for the Mammalian middle ear? Why yes, we're interested!

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1848/20162416?etoc

A new developmental mechanism for the separation of the mammalian middle ear ossicles from the jaw Multiple mammalian lineages independently evolved a definitive mammalian middle ear (DMME) through breakdown of Meckel's cartilage (MC). However, the cellular and molecular drivers of this evolutionary transition remain unknown for most mammal groups. Here, we identify such drivers in the living mar...

https://medium.com//picture-a-paleontologist-what-do-they-look-like-4c56c32fe56d #.c4ilmh1zv

Great to see so many friendly, and diverse, faces! Check out Uhen Lab members within!

Picture a paleontologist. What do they look like? Inspired by a conversation with paleontologist Ali Nabavizadeh, I decided to do a photoshoot at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society of…

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."

Check it out! A new baleen whale that preserves fossil baleen!

http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/10/160542

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

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.12363/full

And finally, something from our local Calvert Formation! Check out this awesome paper on flipper evolution.

Ankylosis and osteonecrosis in the pectoral limb of a baleen whale (Cetacea, Mysticeti) from the Miocene Calvert Formation of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, U.S.A. - Nance - 2016 - Marine Mammal Science - Wiley Online Library Marine Mammal Science Explore this journal > Explore this journal > Early View Previous article in Early View: Insights into Blainville's beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) echolocation ontogeny from recordings of mother-calf pairs Previous article in Early View: Insights into Blainville's beake...

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...

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00288306.2016.1211540?needAccess=true

First up is a key new dolphin from the Early Miocene of New Zealand!

Papahu-like fossil dolphin from Kaikoura, New Zealand, helps to fill the Early Miocene gap in the history of Odontoceti (2016). Papahu-like fossil dolphin from Kaikoura, New Zealand, helps to fill the Early Miocene gap in the history of Odontoceti. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. Ahead of Print. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2016.1211540