Shark Bites Whale

Phys.Org mentions an interesting article published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. The article concerns a fragment of a whale rib, dating to the Pliocene, that shows evidence of a shark bite. In this case the rib also displays evidence of having survived the attack. From Phys.Org:

What Do You Do With A Giant Squid?

Eat it, of course: Does this mean that Cthulhu will not return until sperm whales are extinct? National Geographic has more pictures…

The Evolution of Whale’s Tails

PhysOrg.com has an interesting, but ultimately uninformative, write up of some research that will be appearing in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Here is the context:

Right Whale Bay of Fundy Blog

Like every blogger I accumulate more links to interesting blogs and websites than you can shake a stick at. I am also, like many bloggers, behind in updating my blogroll. Just today I received an email telling me about a fascinating blog called the Right Whale Bay of Fundy Blog. This is a blog by [...]

Pygmy Right Whale Dissected

This is really interesting. Scientists at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa are dissecting a pygmy right whale, you can read all about it at their blog. One interesting bit concerns a common creationist claim about whales:

FoxP2 and Echolocation in Bats and Whales

As I mentioned previously PLOS has an interesting paper on echolocation in bats and whales (you may also recall this post on echolocation in whales). The PloS One paper looks at the FoxP2 gene in bats, cetaceans and various other animals.

Whales, Squid, and Echolocation

Science Daily has an interesting article up about the evolution of echolocation in toothed whales. The research behind the article was published in Lethaia.

Of Humbacks and Herrings

National Geographic has some interesting video of humpback whales using bubblenets to capture herring. Check it out!

Interesting SciBling Posts: Evolution of Baleen Whales and the Barnacle Goose

Zimmers’ wonderful post on baleen whales is a must read. Suffice to say, whale evolution is much cooler than I thought (and I thought it was pretty cool to begin with). Wilkins also has an interesting post on the barnacle goose

Right Whales, Cyamids and Evolution

The above is a southern right whale. Below is a picture of a cyamid. The genetics of both tell a common story. Recent genetic studies indicate that there are three species of right whale (North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern Ocean) which diverged from a single ancestral species some 5-6 million years ago. Scientists studying [...]

Basilosaurus isis: or ‘Does Phillip Johnson Know About This”

In my post on the oviraptisaurian I had mentioned that I was starting to feel sorry for the creationists. At least one of the people commenting on that post thought I was being silly. Well, it’s happening again. Philip Gingerich (who has also done some good work on early primate origins, oh, and he is [...]

Friday Killer Whale Blogging

The April edition of National Geographic is really interesting. In addition to the two articles I recently wrote about, there is also an article on killer whales that is totally fascinating. The article concerns pods of killer whales that reside off the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia. The killer whales are divided into three [...]