The “Name Your Ancestor” contest resulted in more than 1,000 name suggestions for the hypothetical common placental ancestor that scientists described last month. The top 32 contestants, as selected by the Museum and WNYC’s Radiolab, range from serious to silly. Starting today, we need your help to pick the winning moniker for this small, furry, insect-eating mammal. 

Most of us know about blue whales, sperm whales, and dolphins (a type of specialized whale). But what about beaked whales, an elusive group that includes nearly a quarter of all living whale species? 

Astronomers have conducted a remote reconnaissance of a distant solar system with a new telescope imaging system that sifts through the blinding light of stars. Using a suite of high-tech instrumentation and software called Project 1640, the scientists collected the first chemical fingerprints, or spectra, of this system’s four red exoplanets, which orbit a star 128 light years away from Earth.

What did extinct dinosaurs eat—and how do we know it? Find out more from Michael J. Novacek, the Museum's provost of science, and Mark A. Norell, chair of the Division of Paleontology, in a video. 

Like hippos, their closest living relatives, whales are descended from an ancestor that had four legs and walked on land, a transition explored in the upcoming exhibition Whales: Giants of the Deep, opening March 23.