Why Whales Are Weird and Wonderful

ABSTRACT: Why does a whale spout water? What happened to their legs? Which whales have teeth? When do they feed? Where is the belly button? How do they nurse their young underwater? Find out why, what, which, when, where, and how in this lecture on the many unique adaptations that allow whales (including dolphins and porpoises) to survive as mammals in an aquatic environment. Several whale specialisations will be presented from the perspective of a comparative anatomist who studies the anatomy (body structure) of many different animals. 

BIO: Joy S. Reidenberg, Ph.D. is a comparative anatomist, specialising in cetacean anatomy.  She is a Professor in the Center for Anatomy and Functional Morphology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, USA. Her degrees are from Cornell University (B.A. 1983) and Mount Sinai’s Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (M.Phil. 1986, Ph.D. 1988).  Dr. Reidenberg also held appointments as Guest Investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Associate Scientist at National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution). She is an inaugural Fellow of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, and a Fellow of the American Association for Anatomy.