Pyenson Lab

Highlights of anatomical discovery at Experimental Biology 2013

The rorqual sensory organ paper continues to receive attention. At the Experimental Biology 2013 meeting in Boston, co-author (and former Arctic explorer) A. Wayne Vogl noticed a heartening addition to a set of posters commemorating highlights of anatomical discovery in the past 125 (!) years (the American Association of Anatomists' anniversary):

Check the full lineup here (PDFs available) and here. Field photos of dead whales next to Nobel Prize winners -- now that's something pretty unusual. 

Fun fact: Joseph Leidy, famed paleontologist, anatomist and itinerant parasitologist was the first president of AAA, when it was founded here in Washington, D.C., in 1888. 

Updates, updates...

Springtime has officially hit DC this week, and the cherry blossoms blooms are well underway. 

In the coming days, I will circle back to some new publications in 2013 by colleagues, new and old, in the Pyenson Lab, along with an update on the long-coming Smithsonian Libraries exhibit on the art and science of Remington Kellogg's whale illustrations.

First, check out some recent guest blog posts in two different venues: one, at Smithsonian magazine's Around The Mall, where I wrote about the digital specimens and the importance of the real thing; another, for the US State Department, describing the value of museum collections, in general terms.

Also, below, a shot from my talk at the March 9 Nerd Nite DC. (Quite a bit of profanity-laced, after-hours fun). Thanks to Jenna Jadin and also Matt Carrano, for signing me up.

On stage, at DC 9. (h/t to Carrano).

Discover Magazine 100 Top Stories of 2012...

Walking through the airport today, I snagged a copy of the Jan-Feb 2013 issue of Discover magazine. I was elated to see that the rorqual sensory organ was mentioned, sliding in at #74.

(Just ahead of feathered dinosaurs and Jurassic fleas, but well behind the Mars Curiosity rover, which is just fine. That stuff is wild).

For other news stories about the discovery, see links under the Nature paper at the lab's Publications page. We hope to share more about rorqual biomechanics, their evolution and their fossil record in 2013...and if you're going to SICB in San Francisco, be sure to check out Jean Potvin et al.'s posters.

 

 

And we're back...

After a late summer hiatus from our trip in Gondwana, we're back. And we have lots to report. So stay tuned.

While you're waiting, check out the latest from our collaborators (Jean Potvin, Jeremy Goldbogen and Bob Shadwick) about the biomechanics of engulfment feeding in rorquals, published last Friday in PLoS ONE. Read the whole paper here.

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.