Nicholas Pyenson, Smithsonian Institution
Nicholas Pyenson is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. whose research focuses on major land-to-sea ecological transitions in the past 250 million years. 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 courtesy Nicholas Pyenson, Smithsonian Institution)
