Researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Present): I am currently analyzing and writing peer-reviewed manuscripts about steroid hormones, stable isotopes, and trace elements in marine mammal matrices (like baleen).

Researcher with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (Oct. 2020-Oct. 2021): I worked with ADFG to analyze and publish a manuscript about steroid hormones and carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in the claws of bearded and ringed seals. This work has been published (see publications).

PhD research:

I reconstruct baleen whale lifetimes using the hormones in their earwax. Whales produce earwax which builds up in their ear canals over time. This earwax forms a plug that, when cut in half, shows layers similar to tree growth rings (above). Each of these layers correspond to 6 months of time and begin forming in utero until death. This means we can assign a specific age and year to each layer in the earplug. We use the hormones from these layers to show when an individual whale experiences stress, when they reach sexual maturity, and when they are pregnant. Big picture this allows us to look at the environment at the time these animals were alive. To date, we have 150 years of data from the mid-1800s to present day from more than 40 individual baleen whales, including blue, fin, humpback, gray, and minke whales.

The ability for researchers to extract hormones and contaminants from baleen whale earplugs is still very new. Some of the basic questions, like how hormones in the earplugs vary in different tissues is still unknown. Furthermore, much of the known life history for these animals is from long-term observational datasets, which can be subject to sampling biases. Earplugs do not have these same limitations.

Therefore, the focus for my PhD is: 1) assessing steroid hormone concentrations in the earplug, baleen, and blubber of the same individual baleen whales, 2) determining how three stress biomarkers vary in the same layers of an earplug of baleen whales, and 3) analyzing progesterone concentration in earplug layers to determine how many pregnancies a whale experiences in her lifetime.

Research Covered in the News:
- The Atlantic: ‘‘The History of the Oceans Is Locked in Whale Earwax’’
- National Geographic: ‘‘Earwax reveals how humans have changed whales’ lives’’
- Baylor University: ‘‘Baylor Professors Use Whale Earwax to Reconstruct Whale Stress Levels Spanning More Than a Century’’
- Natural History Museum - London: ‘‘Whale earwax reveals just how much human activity can stress out marine mammals’’
- Natural History Museum - London Video: What can we learn from whales' earplugs?
- ARS Technica: ‘‘Whales are stressed out by climate change, and it shows in their earwax’’
- Smithsonian Magazine: ‘‘We Know How Stressed Whales Are Because Scientists Looked At Their Earwax’’

Before starting my PhD in Biology at Baylor University in August 2015, I was an adjunct professor at Cosumnes River College, where I taught Anatomy & Physiology and Foundations of Biology, and California State University Sacramento, where I taught Human Reproductive Physiology.

Currently, I am a teacher of record and have taught lab courses for anatomy & physiology for nursing track students as well as introductory biology at Baylor University. In Spring 2017 I won the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award while teaching Bio 2401, Anatomy & Physiology.

From left to right: Biology Department Graduate Program Director Dr. Ryan King, Acting Vice Provost for Administration Dr. Gary Mortenson, myself (Dani Crain), and Vice Provost and Dean of Baylor Graduate School Dr. J. Larry Lyons after the award ceremony.