Dear MARMAM Community, I am excited to share a new Expert Voices publication in Science this week:
Williams, Terrie M. (2024) A Big Bang Theory of Big Brain Trauma. Science 385, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp9363
This article is a perspective on parallel scientific advancements concerning the potential for brain trauma in big brained mammals from dolphins and whale to humans. It asks the question, could impulsive anthropogenic noise in the oceans instigate neural cellular damage in deep-diving cetaceans? The purpose of the article is to not only bring attention to this worldwide problem, but to encourage responders at mass standing events to collect and preserve neural tissues during necropsies- admittedly not an easy task in the field.
With a new analysis in hand, my colleagues and I would also be interested in joining with members of the marine mammal community with archived or new samples from cetaceans that could be analyzed as part of a neural trauma database (email: [email protected]).
Thank you for reading, Terrie M. Williams Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California - Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA 95060 _______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
