Academic Title(s)

• Ingalls-Brown Professor of Anatomy

Bio

I study fossil whales in order to answer questions about their evolution, in particular about how whales originated from land animals. I also study modern bowhead and beluga whales to learn about their biology and its implications for the management and conservation of these Arctic species. I use anatomical, histological, and embryological samples, collected by doing field work in India and Alaska.

Educational Background

• B.S. 1981, Univ. of Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
• M.S., 1984, Univ. of Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
• Ph.D. 1989, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Courses

• Human Development and Structure
• Mammalian Morphology and Evolution

Publications

• 2016. George G. C., R. Stimmelmayr, R. Suydam, S. Usip, G. Givens, T. Sformo, J. G. M. Thewissen. Severe bone loss as part of the life history strategy of bowhead whales.
• 2014. J. G. M. Thewissen. The Walking Whales, from Land to Water in Eight Million Years. University of California Press, 245 pp.
• 2017 B. Würsig, J. G. M. Thewissen, and K. Kovacs, Editors. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, 3rd edition. Academic Press, Elsevier, 1157 pp.
• 2008. Thewissen, J. G. M. and S. Nummela (editors). Sensory Evolution on the Threshold, Adaptation and Evolution in Secondarily Aquatic Tetrapods. University of California Press, 351 pp.
• 2015, Sensor, J. D., R. Suydam, C. George, M. C. Liberman, D. Lovano, M. A. Rhaganti, S. Usip, C. J. Vinyard, J. G. M. Thewissen. The spiral ganglion and rosenthal’s canal in beluga whales. Journal of Morphology, 276:1455-1466.