Spying on Whales

Nick Pyenson is the creator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian, and this book is the story of everything scientists have learned about whales from the fossil record. Pyenson draws upon his own work and the work of others to tell the story of whales in the distant past, whales of today, and whales in the future. It's surprisingly readable, and it's full of lovely personal stories of Pyenson's own fossil hunting, especially his time in Chile at the site of the world's largest whale fossil collection.