New York City Campus Closed: Tuesday, March 17

Due to infrastructure work at 1855 Broadway, all buildings on the New York City campus will be closed on Tuesday, March 17. Employees should work remotely. It is anticipated that all buildings EXCEPT 1855 Broadway will reopen with full services on Wednesday, March 18. We will update information as soon as it becomes available.

Cetacean Science Explained

Cetacean science is exciting, but it can be difficult to understand the technical language of original scientific publications:

Deméré, T.A., McGowen, M.R., Berta, A., Gatesy. J. 2008. Morphological and molecular evidence for a stepwise evolutionary transition from teeth to baleen in mysticete whales. Systematic Biology 57:15–37

Fitzgerald, E.M.G. 2006. A bizarre new toothed mysticete (Cetacea) from Australia and the early evolution of baleen whales. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 273:2955–2963

Gingerich, P.D., ul-Haq, M., von Koenigswald, W., Sanders, W.J., Smith, B.H., Zalmout, I.S. 2009. New protocetid whale from the middle Eocene of Pakistan: birth on land, precocial development, and sexual dimorphism. PLoS ONE one 4: e4366. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004366. Summary by J. Chang or Summary by R. Boessenecker.

Manger, P.R. 2006. An examination of cetacean brain structure with a novel hypothesis correlating thermogenesis to the evolution of a big brain. Biological Review 81: 293–338.

Marino, L., Butti, C., Connor, R.C., Fordyce, R.E., Herman, L.M., Hof, P.R., Lefebvre, L., Lussaeu, D., McCowan, B., Nimchinsky, E.A., Pack, A.A., Reidenberg, J.S., Reiss, D., Rendell, L., Uhen, M.D., Van der Gucht, E., Whitehead, H. 2008. A claim in search of evidence: reply to Manger’s thermogenesis hypothesis of cetacean brain structure. Biological Review: 1–23.

Muizon, C. de,  Domning, D.P., Ketten, D.R. 2002. Odobenocetops peruvianus, the walrus-convergent delphinoid (Mammalia: Cetacea) from the early Pliocene of Peru. In Cenozoic mammals of land and sea, tributes to the career of Clayton E. Ray. Edited by Emry, R. E. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 93:185–222