Description of Specimens in the Marine Mammal Osteology Reference Collection

The NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) Marine Mammal Osteology Collection consists of approximately 2500 specimens (skulls and post-cranial skeletons) from 43 species of marine mammals from around the world. Specimens have been collected for life history studies over the past 60 years on projects ranging from pelagic sealing in the 1950s, to collections of marine mammals taken incidentally in commercial fisheries, and those found dead on beaches and rookeries from Alaska to the Antarctic.

The NMML Osteology Collection also houses vast numbers of teeth, primarily from northern fur seals taken during the commercial and subsistence harvests on the Pribilof Islands, Steller sea lions taken incidentally in the Alaska fisheries, and sperm whales collected from Pacific coast whaling stations in the 1950s and 60s. The majority of these teeth were initially collected for aging, but many have been used in recent years in stable isotope, nursing and growth layer\growth index studies.

This database is an inventory of specimens and associated data contained within the osteological collection.