Media Advisory: Who Are The Extraterrestrials Among Us? Whales!

Quick: name one mammal that looks anything like a whale. You can't. Modern whales are at the same time mammals and "real-life" extraterrestrials who have adapted to life in the water. That's according to University of Michigan Professor Philip D. Gingerich, who is an expert on whales and how they evolved. He conducts fieldwork in the deserts of Pakistan and Egypt where he has discovered skeletons linking whales to land animals.

Gingerich will give a free, public lecture on the "Origin and Early Evolution of Whales: A Profound Transition from Land to Sea," today (Thursday, March 26, 2009) at 7:30 p.m. in 201 Natural Sciences Complex on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. It is free and open to the public.

The talk is sponsored by the UB Graduate Program in Evolution, Ecology and Behavior; Phi Beta Kappa, and the College of Arts and Sciences Orrin E. Foster Lecture Fund.

Press arrangements: Ellen Goldbaum in the UB Office of University Communications at 645-5000 ext. 1415, and Howard Lasker, professor of geology, on-site.