Diving lessons for whales

Ancient whales were not master divers like their modern descendents. Biologists have discovered signs of decompression syndrome -- the bends -- in several different whale fossils, a finding that could revise the evolutionary history of deep diving.

A team of paleobiologists surveyed hundreds of modern and ancient whale skeletons for decompression syndrome, which occurs when quick pressure changes force air or fat bubbles out of blood vessels.

The full article is here; what is intriguing is the extent to which whales' ability to avoid the bends might be a matter of learned (and, implicitly, taught) technique.

Posted by David on May 8, 2008 10:14 PM