Life and Times of Whales Told Through Their Earwax

Would it be an incredible feat to tell a person's life story just by looking at their earwax? Well, that's not possible for humans however, it is different for certain species of whales.

The ear is the window to a whale's soul. So much can be known about these whales just by looking at their earwax and in a new study, researchers used this to track whales' stress levels and how their bodies responded to all the changes happening in their marine ecosystem.

Over the course of a whale’s life, the waxy material is deposited in its ear canal, leaving a roughly foot-long structure that can be recovered after the animal’s death. Much like a tree’s rings, the layers in the wax can tell a story about the whale’s life. With a layer being deposited every six months, it’s possible to work out how old the whale is and get some clues about the experiences it faced throughout its history.