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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
An image of a fossil rorqual whale

PYENSON LAB

We investigate the evolution of marine mammals using data from fossils, anatomy, and ecology to answer questions about the origin and fate of these amazing organisms.

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We're in the News

Can a single bone tell us something valuable about the diversity of marine mammals in the Arabian Gulf? This week in Smithsonian Voices, Clare Fieseler and Nick Pyenson discuss how one surprise discovery demonstrates the importance of transboundary collaborations in conservation science. Click here to check it out!
dugong rib
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Whales as ecosystem engineers

Large whales can have an outsized impact on ocean ecosystems, but what was the scale of that impact before whaling in the 20th century? Matt Savoca, along with Nick Pyenson and over a dozen authors, show in a paper published in Nature how lost ocean function might be restored by accelerating the recovery of today's surviving whale populations.
Humpback whale