Did you know that the blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived on our planet?  Learn everything you ever wanted to know about whales at the Calvert Marine Museum on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 2:30 p.m. in the museum auditorium. Admission is free. 

Dr. Erich M.G. Fitzgerald, Smithsonian Fellow, Natural Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, and Research Associate, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, will present how these majestic mammals have evolved. The mighty baleen whales, or mysticetes, are surely the most spectacular animals and include the blue whale, the largest animals that have ever lived on our planet: larger than any dinosaur. They have evolved a remarkable feeding mechanism (baleen), with which they filter vast quantities of plankton from seawater by the ton. In doing so, they have become specialists in the extreme; in the course of their evolutionary history losing their teeth, gaining titanic weight, and becoming masters of their open ocean realm. But how did they do it? How did these superb creatures evolve?  

These questions have intrigued and eluded scientists ever since Charles Darwin himself pondered them in his 'Origin of Species.'  Now, fossil discoveries from around the world are beginning to shed light on the deepest origins of the baleen whales. In this presentation, we will see that the tale of the baleen whale is every bit as remarkable as the whales themselves. 

This lecture is hosted by the Calvert Marine Museum Fossil Club and sponsored by the Clarissa and Lincoln Dryden Endowment for Paleontology at the CalvertMarineMuseum. Membership to the Fossil Club is open to members of the CalvertMarineMuseum; annual dues are $10.00. For more information, please call Stephen Godfrey, Curator of Paleontology at (410) 326-2042 ext. 28 or visit the website at www.calvertmarinemuseum.com