Science

The Amazing World of Whales Revealed in Giants of the Deep

Few animals capture our imagination the way whales do. As fellow mammals, there's something immediately recognizable about them -- and yet, specialized as they are for deep ocean life, they're magically foreign, too, like visitors from another world. Wired takes a tour of that world at Giants of the Deep, the American Museum of Natural History's marvelous new whale exhibit.
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  • Sperm Whale
  • A Very Big Heart
  • Strange Tooth
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sperm-whale
Few animals capture our imaginations the way whales do. As fellow mammals, there's something immediately recognizable about them -- and yet, specialized as they are for deep ocean life, they're magically foreign, too, like visitors from another world. From now until January 2014, people can touch that world at the American Museum of Natural History's Whales: Giants of the Deep exhibition. It features a 58-foot-long sperm whale skeleton, a life-sized blue whale heart, and a bounty of fossils and illustrations describing the extraordinary evolutionary journey of whales, which started with 45 million years ago with terrestrial history's largest meat-eating mammal and led to the largest animals in history, period. For people who can't visit in person, exhibition curator John Flynn took Wired on a tour. Above and below:

Sperm Whale

Hanging above Giants of the Deep is a 58-foot-long sperm whale skeleton. This is, incredibly, not an especially large specimen. The largest predators on Earth, sperm whales can weigh 90,000 pounds and reach nearly 70 feet in length. Images: 1) Brandon Cole (high-resolution version) 2) AMNH