Sonam Patel. Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, Ohio 44272, U.S.A. spatel37@neomed.edu
Sonam Patel is a medical student at Northeast Ohio Medical University. She recently completed her master’s in anatomical sciences while conducting research in the Thewissen lab. She graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology from Oberlin College and Conservatory and later received her master’s in epidemiology of infectious diseases at Yale University. She is interested in paleobiology, specifically cranial anatomy and otolaryngology, the clinical study of ear, nose, and throat.
Avinash C. Nanda. Ranga Rao-Obergfell Trust for Geosciences, Dehradun, India.
Dr. Avinash C. Nanda is a geologist who retired from the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, India His specialties are Cenozoic mammal fossils and biostratigraphy, with a particular interest in the Siwalik series of the Himalayas.
Maëva Orliac. Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, Montpellier, France. maeva.orliac@umontpellier.fr
Maëva Orliac's principal research fields are Phylogeny, Systematics (Taxonomy) and Paleobiology of mammals. She is working on the endocranial morphology using micro CT Scan imagery, focussing on the evolutionary history of sensory organs, mostly hearing and balance. Maëva is also interested in the evolution of the brain in mammals, especially extinct taxa (“paleoneurology”), and in the possible correlations between certain brain parameters (volume, complexity, etc.) and evolutionary success (or decline).
Johannes G.M. Thewissen. Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, Ohio 44272, U.S.A (corresponding author) thewisse@neomed.edu
J.G.M. ‘Hans’ Thewissen has traveled the world to study fossil and living whales. In Pakistan, he unearthed Ambulocetus, the walking whale, as well as the skeleton of pakicetids, and Attockicetus, the oldest remingtonocetid. In India, his team discovered the first skeletons of Indohyus, as the closest artiodactyl relative of whales, as well as skulls of remingtonocetids and protocetids. His work with the sense organs of modern whales in Alaska includes the search for evidence of acoustic trauma in Arctic whales, and the specific morphological adaptations to echolocation in beluga whales and low frequency communication in bowhead whales. He seeks to determine the origin of specialized hearing and balance adaptations of whales in the fossil record and their relation to sudden changes in brain size. He has published more than 100 scientific papers, mostly in paleontology, anatomy, and embryology. He was a co-editor for the Marine Mammal Encyclopedia, now in its third edition. His popular book about the origin of whales, The Walking Whales, was translated into Japanese and Korean.
