Dec 12, 2018

Biggest extinction in Earth’s history caused by global warming leaving ocean animals gasping for breath

a spiral-shaped fossil from the Helicoprion, a shark that lived in the Permian.

In some ways, the planet's worst mass extinction — 250 million years ago — may parallel climate change today.

Ancient whale named for UW paleontologist Elizabeth Nesbitt

Elizabeth Nesbitt with some of the whale fossils in the Burke Museum’s collection.

A newly discovered species of whale — found preserved in ancient rock on the Oregon coast — has been named for a University of Washington paleontologist. “It’s a tremendous honor,” said Elizabeth Nesbitt, who is curator of invertebrate paleontology and micropaleontology at the Burke Museum and an associate professor in the UW’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences. Maiabalaena nesbittae lived about 33 million years ago and was described in a Nov.

Q&A: New Washington Sea Grant director brings love of learning, experience across sectors

Russell Callender, director of Washington Sea Grant effective September 2018.

Russell Callender spent nearly two decades working on coastal science, policy and management issues at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s headquarters near Washington, D.C. But throughout his tenure at the nation’s capital, he kept his eye on a position at an organization in the other Washington. When he saw the job posting last summer to lead Washington Sea Grant at the University of Washington, it took Callender all of about two minutes to start working on his application.

University of Washington announces new marine biology major

A marine biology student surveys the diversity of invertebrates and algae in an intertidal zone.

The bachelor of science from UW Environment launched in autumn 2018.

Visit the Marine Biology website »

Nov 7, 2018

‘Ocean memory’ the focus of cross-disciplinary effort by UW’s Jody Deming

The vast oceans of our planet still hold many unsolved questions. Uncovering some of their mysteries has been a decades-long focus for University of Washington oceanography professor Jody Deming. This fall, Deming embarks on a very different type of ocean exploration. A $500,000 grant from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, or NAKFI, will allow her and a group representing a wide variety of disciplines in the sciences and the arts to look at the oceans in new ways.