Pyenson, Nicholas

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Department / Division

Paleobiology

Education

B.S., Emory University
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Additional Resources

Learn more about ongoing research in the Pyenson Lab

Research Interests

Evolution and ecology of marine mammals and other marine tetrapods

Publications

Groves, Sabrina L., Peredo, Carlos Mauricio, and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2021. "What are the limits on whale ear bone size? Non-isometric scaling of the cetacean bulla." Peerj, 9. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10882.
McCurry, Matthew R., Marx, Felix G., Evans, Alistair R., Park, Travis, Pyenson, Nicholas D., Kohno, Naoki, Castiglione, Silvia, and Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. 2021. "Brain size evolution in whales and dolphins: new data from fossil mysticetes." Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 133, (4) 990–998. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blab054.
Peredo, Carlos Mauricio and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2021. "Morphological variation of the relictual alveolar structures in the mandibles of baleen whales." Peerj, 9. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11890.
Pimiento, Catalina and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2021. "PALEONTOLOGY When sharks nearly disappeared." Science, 372, (6546) 1036–1037. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj2088.
Savoca, Matthew S., Czapanskiy, Max F., Kahane-Rapport, Shirel R., Gough, William T., Fahlbusch, James A., Bierlich, K. C., Segre, Paolo S., Di Clemente, Jacopo, Penry, Gwenith S., Wiley, David N., Calambokidis, John, Nowacek, Douglas P., Johnston, David W., Pyenson, Nicholas D., Friedlaender, Ari S., Hazen, Elliott L., and Goldbogen, Jeremy A. 2021. "Baleen whale prey consumption based on high-resolution foraging measurements." Nature, 599, (7883) 85. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03991-5.
Pyenson, Nick. 2020. "Policy Tales and the Secret Life of Whales." Nature, 577, (7791) 583–584. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00113-5.
Valenzuela-Toro, Ana M., Zicos, Maria H., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2020. "Extreme dispersal or human-transport? The enigmatic case of an extralimital freshwater occurrence of a Southern elephant seal from Indiana." Peerj, 8 e9665–e9665. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9665.
Goldbogen, J. A., Cade, D. E., Wisniewska, D. M., Potvin, J., Segre, P. S., Savoca, M. S., Hazen, E. L., Czapanskiy, M. F., Kahane-Rapport, S. R., DeRuiter, S. L., Gero, S., Tonnesen, P., Gough, W. T., Hanson, M. B., Holt, M. M., Jensen, F. H., Simon, M., Stimpert, A. K., Arranz, P., Johnston, D. W., Nowacek, D. P., Parks, S. E., Visser, F., Friedlaender, A. S., Tyack, P. L. et al. 2019. "Why whales are big but not bigger: Physiological drivers and ecological limits in the age of ocean giants." Science, 366, (6471) 1367. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax9044.
Leslie, Matthew S., Peredo, Carlos M., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. [Dataset] Dataset for Leslie, Peredo & Pyenson 2019. Distributed by Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3245499.
Leslie, Matthew S., Peredo, Carlos M., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. [Dataset] Dataset for Leslie, Peredo & Pyenson 2019. Distributed by Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3431395.

Leslie, Matthew S., Peredo, Carlos M., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. [Dataset] Dataset for Leslie, Peredo & Pyenson 2019. Distributed by Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3245500.
Leslie, Matthew S., Peredo, Carlos Mauricio, and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. "Norrisanima miocaena, a new generic name and redescription of a stem balaenopteroid mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California." PeerJ, 7 31608165. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7629.
McCurry, Matthew R., Evans, Alistair R., Fitzgerald, Erich M. G., McHenry, Colin R., Bevitt, Joseph, and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. "The repeated evolution of dental apicobasal ridges in aquatic-feeding mammals and reptiles." Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 127, (2) 245–259. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blz025.
McCurry, Matthew R. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. "Hyper-longirostry and kinematic disparity in extinct toothed whales." Paleobiology, 45, (1) 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.33.
Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. "Where to find fantastic beasts at sea." Science, 363, (6425) 338–339. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav9156.
Shipps, B. K., Peredo, Carlos Mauricio, and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. "Borealodon osedax, a new stem mysticete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Oligocene of Washington State and its implications for fossil whale-fall communities." Royal Society Open Science, 6, (7) 182168–182168. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.182168.
Valenzuela-Toro, Ana and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2019. "What do we know about the fossil record of pinnipeds? A historiographical investigation." Royal Society Open Science, 6, (11). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191394.
Peredo, Carlos Mauricio, Peredo, Julio S., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2018. "Convergence on dental simplification in the evolution of whales." Paleobiology, 44, (3) 434–443. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2018.9.
Peredo, Carlos Mauricio and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2018. "Salishicetus meadi, a new aetiocetid from the late Oligocene of Washington State and implications for feeding transitions in early mysticete evolution." Royal Society Open Science, 5, (4) 172336–172336. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172336.
Peredo, Carlos Mauricio, Pyenson, Nicholas D., Marshall, Christopher D., and Uhen, Mark D. 2018. "Tooth Loss Precedes the Origin of Baleen in Whales." Current Biology, 28, (24) 3992–4000 .e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.047.
Pyenson, Nick. 2018. Spying on whales: the past, present, and future of earth's most awesome creatures. New York, New York (2018): Viking.
Boersma, Alexandra T., McCurry, Matthew R., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2017. "A new fossil dolphin Dilophodelphis fordycei provides insight into the evolution of supraorbital crests in Platanistoidea (Mammalia, Cetacea)." Royal Society Open Science, 4, (5). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170022.
Fleming, Alyson H. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2017. "How to Produce Translational Research to Guide Arctic Policy." Bioscience, 67, (6) 490–493. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix002.
Peredo, Carlos Mauricio and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2017. "Decoupling tooth loss from the evolution of baleen in whales." Frontiers in Marine Science, 4 67. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00067.
Peredo, Carlos Mauricio, Pyenson, Nicholas D., Uhen, Mark D., and Marshall, Christopher D. 2017. "Alveoli, teeth, and tooth loss: Understanding the homology of internal mandibular structures in mysticete cetaceans." PloS One, 12, (5) 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178243.
Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2017. "The Ecological Rise of Whales Chronicled by the Fossil Record." Current Biology, 27, (11) R558–R564. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.05.001.
Shadwick, Robert E., Goldbogen, Jeremy A., Pyenson, Nicholas D., and Whale, James C. A. 2017. "Structure and Function in the Lunge Feeding Apparatus: Mechanical Properties of the Fin Whale Mandible." Anatomical Record : Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, 300, (11) 1953–1962. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.23647.
Slater, Graham J., Goldbogen, Jeremy A., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2017. "Independent evolution of baleen whale gigantism linked to Plio-Pleistocene ocean dynamics." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284, (1855). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0546.
Boersma, Alexandra T. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2016. "Arktocara yakataga, a new fossil odontocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Oligocene of Alaska and the antiquity of Platanistoidea." PeerJ, 4 e2321. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2321.
Le Roux, Jacobus P., Achurra, Luciano, Henríquez, Álvaro, Carreño, Catalina, Rivera, Huber, Suárez, Mario E., Ishman, Scott E., Pyenson, Nicholas D., and Gutstein, Carolina S. 2016. "Oroclinal bending of the Juan Fernández Ridge suggested by geohistory analysis of the Bahía Inglesa Formation, north-central Chile." Sedimentary Geology, 333 32–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2015.12.003.
O'Dea, Aaron, Lessios, Harilaos A., Coates, Anthony G., Eytan, Ron I., Restrepo-Moreno, Sergio, Cione, Alberto L., Collins, Laurel S., de Queiroz, Alan, Farris, David W., Norris, Richard D., Stallard, Robert F., Woodburne, Michael O., Aguilera, Orangel, Aubry, Marie-Pierre, Berggren, William A., Budd, Ann F., Cozzuol, Mario A., Coppard, Simon E., Duque-Caro, Herman, Finnegan, Seth, Gasparini, German M., Grossman, Ethan L., Johnson, Kenneth G., Keigwin, Lloyd D., Knowlton, Nancy et al. 2016. "Formation of the Isthmus of Panama." Science Advances, 2, (8). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600883.
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Parham, James F., and Velez-Juarbe, Jorge. 2016. "The dilemma of trade samples and the importance of museum vouchers-caveats from a study on the extinction of Steller's sea cow: a comment on Crerar et al. (2014)." Biology Letters, 12, (2) 20150149. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0149.
Pyenson, Nicholas D. and Vermeij, Geerat J. 2016. "The rise of ocean giants: maximum body size in Cenozoic marine mammals as an indicator for productivity in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans." Biology Letters, 12, (7). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0186.
Valenzuela-Toro, Ana, Pyenson, Nicholas D., Gutstein, Carolina S., and Suárez, Mario E. 2016. "A new dwarf seal from the late Neogene of South America and the evolution of pinnipeds in the southern hemisphere." Papers in Palaeontology, 2, (1) 101–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1033.
Yamato, Maya, Khidas, Kamal, Pyenson, Nicholas D., Fordyce, R. Ewan, and Mead, James G. 2016. "Extensively remodeled, fractured cetacean tympanic bullae show that whales can survive traumatic injury to the ears." Journal of anatomy, 228, (1) 125–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12385.
Boersma, Alexandra T. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2015. [Dataset] Dataset For Boersma And Pyenson 2015 Plosone. Distributed by Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.23029.
Boersma, Alexandra T. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2015. "Albicetus oxymycterus, a New Generic Name and Redescription of a Basal Physeteroid (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Miocene of California, and the Evolution of Body Size in Sperm Whales." PLoS ONE, 10, (12) 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135551.
Goldbogen, Jeremy, Shadwick, Robert, Lillie, Margo, Piscitelli, Marina, Potvin, Jean, Pyenson, Nicholas D., and Vogl, A. W. 2015. "Using morphology to infer physiology: case studies on rorqual whales (Balaenopteridae)." Canadian journal of zoology, 93, (9) 687–700. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2014-0311.
Kelley, Neil P. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2015. "Evolutionary innovation and ecology in marine tetrapods from the Triassic to the Anthropocene." Science, 348, (6232). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa3716.
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Velez-Juarbe, Jorge, Gutstein, Carolina S., Little, Holly, Vigil, Dioselina, and O'Dea, Aaron. 2015. [Dataset] Dataset For Pyenson Et Al. 2015 Peerj. Distributed by Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.27214.
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Vélez-Juarbe, Jorge, Gutstein, Carolina S., Little, Holly, Vigil, Dioselina, and O'Dea, Aaron. 2015. "Isthminia panamensis, a new fossil inioid (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Chagres Formation of Panama and the evolution of 'river dolphins' in the Americas." PeerJ, 3 1–50. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1227.
Valenzuela-Toro, Ana M., Gutstein, Carolina S., Suarez, Mario E., Otero, Rodrigo, and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2015. "Elephant seal (Mirounga sp.) from the Pleistocene of the Antofagasta Region, northern Chile." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 35, (3). https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2014.918883.
Vogl, A. W., Lillie, Margo A., Piscitelli, Marina A., Goldbogen, Jeremy A., Pyenson, Nicholas D., and Shadwick, Robert E. 2015. "Stretchy nerves are an essential component of the extreme feeding mechanism of rorqual whales." Current biology, 25, (9) R360–R361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.007.
Yamato, Maya and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2015. "Early development and orientation of the acoustic funnel provides insight into the evolution of sound reception pathways in cetaceans." PloS One, 10, (3) 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118582.
Gutstein, Carolina S., Figueroa-Bravo, Constanza P., Pyenson, Nicholas D., Yury-Yañez, Roberto E., Cozzuol, Mario A., and Canals, Mauricio. 2014. "High frequency echolocation, ear morphology, and the marine-freshwater transition: A comparative study of extant and extinct toothed whales." Palaeogeography palaeoclimatology palaeoecology, 400 62–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.01.026.
Gutstein, Carolina Simon, Cozzuol, Mario Alberto, and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2014. "The Antiquity of Riverine Adaptations in Iniidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti) Documented by a Humerus from the Late Miocene of the Ituzaingó Formation, Argentina." Anatomical Record : Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, 297, (6) 1096–1102. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.22901.
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Gutstein, Carolina S., Parham, James F., Le Roux, Jacobus P., Chavarria, Catalina C., Little, Holly, Metallo, Adam, Rossi, Vincent, Valenzuela-Toro, Ana M., Velez-Juarbe, Jorge, Santelli, Cara M., Rogers, David R., Cozzuol, Mario A., and Suarez, Mario E. 2014. "Repeated mass strandings of Miocene marine mammals from Atacama Region of Chile point to sudden death at sea." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281, (1781). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3316.
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Kelley, Neil P., and Parham, James F. 2014. "Marine tetrapod macroevolution: Physical and biological drivers on 250 Ma of invasions and evolution in ocean ecosystems." Palaeogeography palaeoclimatology palaeoecology, 400 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.02.018.
Debey, Lauren B. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2013. "Osteological correlates and phylogenetic analysis of deep diving in living and extinct pinnipeds: What good are big eyes?" Marine Mammal Science, 29, (1) 48–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00545.x.
Noakes, Scott E., Pyenson, Nicholas D., and McFall, Greg. 2013. "Late Pleistocene gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) offshore Georgia, U.S.A., and the antiquity of gray whale migration in the North Atlantic Ocean." Palaeogeography palaeoclimatology palaeoecology, 392 502–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.10.005.
Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2013. [Book review] "Ecology and Conservation of the Sirenia: Dugongs and Manatees by Helene Marsh, Thomas J. O&#39Shea, and John E. Reynolds." The Quarterly review of biology, 88, (1), 42–43. https://doi.org/10.1086/669272.
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Goldbogen, Jeremy A., and Shadwick, Robert E. 2013. "Mandible allometry in extant and fossil Balaenopteridae (Cetacea: Mammalia): the largest vertebrate skeletal element and its role in rorqual lunge feeding." Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 108, (3) 586–599. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2012.02032.x.
Shadwick, Robert E., Goldbogen, Jeremy A., Potvin, Jean, Pyenson, Nicholas D., and Vogl, Wayne. 2013. "Novel muscle and connective tissue design enables high extensibility and controls engulfment volume in lunge-feeding rorqual whales." Journal of experimental biology, 216 2691–2701. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.081752.
Valenzuela-Toro, Ana M., Gutstein, Carolina S., Varas-Malca, Rafael M., Suarez, Mario E., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2013. "Pinniped Turnover in the South Pacific Ocean: New Evidence from the Plio-Pleistocene of the Atacama Desert, Chile." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 33, (1) 216–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.710282.
Goldbogen, Jeremy A., Calambokidis, John, Croll, Donald A., McKenna, Megan F., Olseson, Erin, Potvin, Jean, Pyenson, Nicholas D., Schorr, Greg, Shadwick, Robert E., and Tershy, Bernie R. 2012. "Scaling of lunge feeding performance in rorqual whales: mass-specific energy expenditure increases with body size and progressively limits diving capacity." Functional Ecology, 26, (1) 216–226. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01905.x.
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Goldbogen, Jeremy A., Vogl, A. Wayne, Szathmary, Gabor, Drake, Richard L., and Shadwick, Robert E. 2012. "Discovery of a sensory organ that coordinates lunge feeding in rorqual whales." Nature, 485, (7399) 498–501. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11135.
Velez-Juarbe, Jorge, Domning, Daryl P., and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2012. "Iterative Evolution of Sympatric Seacow (Dugongidae, Sirenia) Assemblages during the Past ~26 Million Years." PLoS ONE, 7, (2) 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031294.
Vélez-Juarbe, Jorge and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2012. "Bohaskaia monodontoides, a new monodontid (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Delphinoidea) from the Pliocene of the western North Atlantic Ocean." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 32, (2) 476–484. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.641705.
Goldbogen, J. A., Calambokidis, J., Oleson, E., Potvin, J., Pyenson, Nicholas D., Schorr, G., and Shadwick, R. E. 2011. "Mechanics, hydrodynamics and energetics of blue whale lunge feeding: efficiency dependence on krill density." Journal of Experimental Biology, 214, (1) 131–146. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.048157.
McKenna, Megan F., Cranford, Ted W., Berta, Annalisa, and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2011. "Morphology of the odontocete melon and its implications for acoustic function." Marine Mammal Science, 28, (4) 690–713. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00526.x.
Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2011. "The high fidelity of the cetacean stranding record: insights into measuring diversity by integrating taphonomy and macroecology." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 278, (1724) 3608–3616. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0441.
Pyenson, Nicholas D. and Lindberg, David R. 2011. "What Happened to Gray Whales during the Pleistocene? The Ecological Impact of Sea-Level Change on Benthic Feeding Areas in the North Pacific Ocean." PLoS ONE, 6, (7) 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021295.
Pyenson, Nicholas D. and Sponberg, Simon N. 2011. "Reconstructing body size in extinct crown Cetacea (Neoceti) using allometry, phylogenetic methods and tests from the fossil record." Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 18, (4) 269–288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-011-9170-1.
Uhen, Mark D., Pyenson, Nicholas D., Devries, Thomas J., Urbina, Mario, and Renne, Paul R. 2011. "New Middle Eocene Whales from the Pisco Basin of Peru." Journal of Paleontology, 85, (5) 955–969. https://doi.org/10.1666/10-162.1.
Parham, James F. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2010. "New Sea Turtle from the Miocene of Peru and the Iterative Evolution of Feeding Ecomorphologies since the Cretaceous." Journal of Paleontology, 84, (2) 231–247. https://doi.org/10.1666/09-077R.1.
Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2010. "Carcasses on the coastline: measuring the ecological fidelity of the cetacean stranding record in eastern North Pacific Ocean." Paleobiology, 36, (3) 453–480. https://doi.org/10.1666/09018.1.
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Irmis, Randall B., and Lipps, Jere H. 2010. "Comment on "Climate, Critters, and Cetaceans: Cenozoic Drivers of the Evolution of Modern Whales"." Science, 330, (6001) 178. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1189866.
Uhen, M. D. and Pyenson, Nicholas D. 2007. "Diversity estimates, biases, and historiographic effects: Resolving cetacean diversity in the tertiary." Palaeontologia Electronica, 10, (2) 11A–11A.

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