Pyenson Lab

Cerro Ballena in this month's Smithsonian magazine

Shifting gears from anatomical fieldwork in Iceland to paleontological fieldwork in Chile: this month's Smithsonian magazine features a terrific article by Abigail Tucker in the "Around the Mall" section about our work with the laser cowboys at Cerro Ballena. To the cetologically inclined, Abby's title in the print and eMag version (below) has multiple meanings: from "save the whales," a 1970's era bumper sticker-ready slogan; and whalebone is the 19th century term for the keratinous baleen plates that hang from the roof of the mouth in mysticetes. It also refers, plainly, to the bones belonging to fossil whales that Adam Metallo and Vince Rossi (the laser cowboys from Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Program) scanned in the Atacama desert. Read the article to find out more, and then dig deeper in this blog's archives on our work at Cerro Ballena.

 

Atacama whales on the iPad. (Photo: J. A. Goldbogen)

Media: New sensory organ in rorqual whales, Pyenson et al. 2012

News coverage of our paper in Nature has made the rounds in traditional print media, radio, online and on science blogs over the past week. We've collated most of the original articles in the lab Publications page, but I'd like to highlight some of the best coverage below:

- Bob McDonald from CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks (a show I listened to as a kid in Montreal and then while a postdoc in Vancouver) interviewed me last week, and the episode aired over the weekend. It was a real treat, and the interview explains a lot of what we discovered in clear, plain language. Listen in here (or go to the episode homepage here).

- Kelly Slivka of the New York Times Green Blog provided in-depth coverage about how we figured out that the structure we saw was sensory organ, in an extensively referenced post. Also, Sindya Bhanoo wrote about our paper in the Observatory section of yesterday's New York Times Science Times print edition.

- Keith Seinfeld of KPLU in Seattle covered the story, with a radio segment as well.

- Among science bloggers, I was elated to see detailed pieces by Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science and and Jerry Coyne at the blog Why Evolution Is True.

- Finally, there were great online stories at the BBC, CBC and International Business Times too.

The cover article in tomorrow's issue of Nature

Check out our paper in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature -- it is featured on the cover! For more information about our paper, images and a FAQ guide, click to this page.

I will post more links to news coverage in the coming days. (Nature has a nice editorial article about the paper, as a primer).

Media: Bohaskaia in Canadian press

I've noticed that Velez-Juarbe and Pyenson (2012)'s description of a new beluga relative, Bohaskaia monodontoides, in this month's JVP has gotten picked up in the Canadian press. See the lab's publications page for more links to these media articles. 

Also, for those with access to the print journal or the PDF, you will notice some Canadian connections in the paper's Acknowledgments.

The list shows newspapers from coast to coast, including my hometown paper, the Montreal Gazette -- a paper whose sports section I poured over endelessly as a kid, digesting stats on the Habs and the Expos. (It is a profound twist that the local MLB team here, the Washington Nationals, is the translocated Expos franchise).

 

Bohaskaia monodontoides, new genus and new species

Reconstruction of a new fossil beluga relative, named Bohaskaia monodontoides, in the foreground. Its living relatives, the beluga and narwhal, are illustrated left to right in the background. Coloration of Bohaskaia is speculative. Art by Carl Buell.

And now more about Bohaskaia. It's the name of a new beluga relative that Jorge and I described in this month's Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. And its namesake honors Dave Bohaska, which we thought was deeply appropriate. 

I detailed Bohaskaia's "making of" story  in my Smithsonian Around the Mall post last Friday. Also, you can read Jorge's post on Caribbean Paleobiology (in Spanish!). [Addition 14 Mar 12: Smithsonian's Ocean Portal is now carrying the story as well].

Lastly, many sincere thanks to our friend Carl Buell's hard work -- more beautiful art below.

Publication: Velez-Juarbe and Pyenson, 2012

Today, the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology released its March issue for 2012, which contained a new lab publication by Jorge and Nick. We'll be telling the "making of" story behind this paper shortly; below is a teaser from the PDF (available behind the pay-wall, unfortunately, for the moment).

 

In the meantime, I'd be remiss if I didn't give Dan a shoutout over at MotFP. Check out the gorgeous cover art and news media surrounding Kspeka et al. (2012)'s publication in the same issue, describing giant fossil penguins (Kairuku spp.) from New Zealand. In the Pyenson Lab, we love all marine tetrapods more-or-less equally, but we reserve a special place for regal penguins storming beachfront marked off by dead whales (in the case below, Waipatia maerewhenua).

 

Two Kairuku sp. penguins walk past a ripe Waipatia. (Artwork by C. Gaskin / Geology Museum, University of Otago). See Kspeka et al. (2012) J. Vert. Paleo.

Follow-up on Velez-Juarbe et al. 2012

The sea cow story continues: today the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Portal leads with a news release by Pyenson Lab member and NMNH pre-doctoral fellow Jorge Velez-Juarbe, describing the findings from a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE. Jorge is the lead author on the paper; note the Spanish text published on his blog, and the English version on Ocean Portal!

Many thanks to the talented and patient Carl Buell, whose artistic reconstructions grace the titlecard of the Ocean Portal and were incorporated into Figure 2 of the eventual paper!

 

Publication: Velez-Juarbe et al. 2012

Today, a new paper describing an important feature of the paleoecology of fossil sea cows was published in the journal PLoS ONE. The lead author is Pyenson Lab member and NMNH pre-doctoral fellow Jorge Velez-Juarbe, along with his advisor Daryl Domning (Howard University) and NDP. We'll link more to further coverage on Monday!

Illustration showing reconstructions of fossil dugongid assemblages from Florida, India and Mexico during the past ~26 million years. Art by Carl Buell. (Figure 2 from Velez-Juarbe et al. 2012.)

 

SICB 2012 presentations covered in Science Magazine

More news today, published in this week's print issue of the journal Science. Goldbogen, NDP, Shadwick and Potvin were all featured in a news article describing our research presentations at SICB 2012 in Charleston, two weeks ago. Some great quotes on our work from notable researchers in biomechanics, too.

We also definitely approve of Doug Perrine's glorious Bryde's whale image.

Meetings: SICB 2012

Last week, NDP reunited with colleagues from his postdoctoral days at the University of British Columbia at the 2012 meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology in Charleston, South Carolina. The group includes his postdoc advisor, Bob Shadwick, long-time colleague Jeremy Goldbogen, and parachute physicist extraordinaire Jean Potvin. Previously, the gang (known to one another as GPPS) had last met at the 2009 Society of Marine Mammalogy meeting in Québec City, about an hour south of where Jean grew up, and a train ride north from where Nick grew up.

Team GPPS, in front of Potvin et al.'s poster. Left to right: NDP, J. A. Goldbogen, R. E. Shadwick and J.Potvin. (Photo RES via Lars Schmitz).

Since that time, the team (along with many other collaborators) have published a bevy of papers on the biomechanics of lunge-feeding in rorqual whales (a group known as Balaenopteridae), using datasets from morphology, animal-bourne recording devices, and theoretical contributions as well. Check out Jer's website for more. 

At SICB 2012, our group had 2 talks and a poster, presenting our most recent findings. We hope to share more news about collaborative group's findings as our results move through to publication. Stay tuned!