Scientists conducting the first circum-global assessment of mitochondrial DNA variation in the Southern Hemisphere’s humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have found that whales faithfully returning to calving grounds year after year play a major role in how populations form, according to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), the American Museum of Natural History, and a number of other […]
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A study of the DNA in ancient skeletal remains adds to the evidence that indigenous groups living today in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of the first humans to make their home in northwest North America more than 10,000 years ago. “Our analysis suggests that this […]
The Alaska State Troopers revealed that a second set of remains, those of Clifford Griest, were positively identified by the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology in Texas, after they were discovered in the surf 60 miles south of Kotzebue almost a year ago. They positively identified Griest using DNA analysis. Griest had been discovered by a […]
An international team of scientists who searched out specimens from museums and remote Arctic islands has identified a rare new species of beaked whale that ranges from northern Japan across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Japanese whalers call the enigmatic black whales “karasu,” the Japanese word for raven. The new species is darker […]