In the late 1980s, annual carbon isotope cycles in the baleen plates of bowhead whales formed the basis of the first effective means of estimating bowhead age. However, the baleen aging method could only be used for aging subadult whales less than…
Cetacean evolution was shaped by an extraordinary land-to-sea transition in which the ancestors of whales became fully aquatic. As part of this transition, these mammals evolved unusually thick blubber which acts as a metabolic reservoir as well as…
