Professor Werth presents his whale research at the Smithsonian

H-SC Biology Professor Alex Werth recently returned from a June conference with colleagues from around the world, hosted by George Mason University and the Smithsonian Institution, on the evolution of whales and other marine life. He gave a talk on the evolution of filter feeding in whales–the focus of his current research. A highlight of the meeting was spending a day looking through the rare bones and rare books of the Smithsonian’s library collection in downtown DC and the osteological collection in suburban Maryland. There is not enough room for the whale bones to be kept at the National Museum of Natural History. The 7 meter long jaws of the blue whale are the largest individual bones that have ever been on Earth!