Whalebones show damage from diving

Long-lived sperm whales typically develop bone damage resembling that observed in human divers who surface too quickly or dive too frequently, new research indicates. Marine mammals that dive throughout their lives hadn’t been known to be susceptible to such a hazard.

Biologists Michael J. Moore and Greg A. Early of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts made their discovery when they examined the museum-housed skeletal remains of 16 sperm whales.