Nicholas Pyenson, Smithsonian Institution
Neil Kelley, a Peter Buck postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, holds a fossil stingray spine found during a recent expedition to Calvert Cliffs, MD. In April 2015, a team of Smithsonian scientists synthesized decades of scientific discoveries to illuminate the common and unique patterns driving the extraordinary transitions that whales, dolphins, seals and other species underwent as they moved from land to sea, offering a comprehensive look at how life in the ocean has responded to environmental change from the Triassic to the Anthropocene. (Photo by Nicholas Pyenson, Smithsonian Institution)
