
[From New Latin Cētācea, order name, from Latin cētus, whale. See Cetus.]
For more information on cetacean, visit Britannica.com.
Cetaceans — that class of marine mammals known to us through such famous representatives as Flipper and Moby Dick — were in the news thanks to a happy discovery about the humpback whale:
"Humpback whales have a type of brain cell seen only in humans, the great apes, and other cetaceans such as dolphins, US researchers report."
Link: News in Science - Whale brains are part human - 28/11/2006
Posted November 28, 2006.
See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.
A mammalian order comprising approximately 90 living species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises and their fossil relatives. Like all other mammals but unlike all fish, cetaceans nurse their young with milk produced by the mother, are endothermic (warm-blooded), breathe air, have a lower jaw that consists of a single bony element (the dentary), and have three small bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) subserving sound transmission within the ear.
Living cetaceans are aquatic animals that cannot live on land. They have streamlined bodies, with the nasal opening (blowhole) on top of the head (see illustration). Their forelimbs are modified into flippers, they lack external hindlimbs, and their tail forms a flat horizontal fluke. Modern cetaceans lack hair except for whiskers in the young of some species. Many of these features are common in aquatic vertebrates, and they have evolved convergently as adaptations for life in water.

Skeleton of a porpoise, highly specialized for an aquatic life. (After Guide to the Hall of Biology of Mammals, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. Guide Leafl. Ser. 76, 1933)
The brain of cetaceans is large and highly developed, and they are thought to be very intelligent. The cetacean sense of smell is nearly or totally absent. In most species the nerve that carries olfactory information to the brain is absent, which is very unusual among mammals. The eyes of most species are well developed. The ear is the most important sense organ. Toothed whales (Odontoceti) echolocate, emitting high-frequency sounds and using the echoes to determine shapes and distances in their surroundings. Odontocetes do not emit sounds with their voice box (larynx) like other mammals, but have modified nasal passages through which bursts of air are forced. Mysticetes (baleen whales) do not echolocate; rather, they produce low-frequency sounds with their larynx. These sounds can travel through the ocean for hundreds of miles and are used for communication. See also Echolocation.
The two extant suborders of cetaceans, odontocetes and mysticetes, have different dietary specializations. Most odontocetes have simple, pronglike teeth which are used to grab and hold, but not chew, large prey items. Prey includes a variety of fish of all sizes, crustaceans, and squid and other mollusks. Some of the larger odontocetes, such as the killer whale (Orcinus orca), eat large prey, including sea lions and dolphins. A pod of killer whales will also hunt together, attacking much larger prey such as gray whales. Modern mysticetes do not have teeth and are filter feeders, straining water filled with clouds of marine organisms (krill) through a network of baleen. Baleen is a keratinlike substance that hangs down in plates from the upper jaws of the whale.
All modern cetaceans swim by swinging their horizontal tail fluke through the water, while their forelimbs are used for steering and navigating. The flippers of modern cetaceans resemble flat oars, although the bones for five fingers are present internally. The dorsal fin stabilizes the body during swimming. Under the skin of cetaceans is a layer of blubber, a fatty tissue that serves to insulate the animal and affects its buoyancy and streamlining. Some species are capable of diving to great depths [commonly more than 5000 ft (1500 m) in the sperm whale], yet all cetaceans must come to the surface to breathe. Whales have a number of adaptations for diving and staying underwater for long periods of time. They exhale before they dive, allowing them to submerge faster. They store oxygen in the muscle (myoglobin) and not in the lungs or blood (hemoglobin) and change circulation patterns of blood to save oxygen. Their chests can easily collapse under increasing pressure (with depth) without causing permanent damage. See also Adipose tissue; Diving animals; Hemoglobin.
A variety of social structures are found among cetaceans. Two examples are marine dolphins and sperm whales. Most marine dolphins live in schools that may contain dozens of animals, sometimes composed of multiple species. Herds of sperm whales consist of related females and juveniles. Clusters of young males form bachelor groups, and adult males, much larger than the females, are solitary.
Cetaceans are found in all oceans and seas. Some species are restricted to coastal environments (such as bottlenosed dolphins), whereas others live only in the open sea (such as sperm whales). Some species live in all seas and oceans of the world (such as killer whales). Many mysticetes and sperm whales are migratory. A number of dolphin species have left the sea and live permanently in rivers.
Cetaceans originated from a four-footed terrestrial ancestor. This predecessor, a mesonychian, may have resembled a wolf or a hyena and lived approximately 55 million years ago. Modern odontocetes are diverse, ranging from the enormous sperm whales [up to 20 m (66 ft) long and 52,000 kg (114,500 lb)] to the tiny porpoises [Phocaenidae, smallest around 9 kg (20 lb), length 1.5 m (5 ft)]. Dolphins (Delphinidae, which includes the killer whale), porpoises (Phocaenidae), and fresh-water dolphins (Iniidae, Pontoporidae, Platanistidae) are the smallest odontocetes. The largest animal ever to live on Earth is the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), a baleen whale that is 25 m (82 ft) long and weighs 130,000 kg (286,340 lb). Other examples of mysticetes are humpback whales, right whales, gray whales, and minke whales. See also Mammalia.

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| Cetaceans[1] Temporal range: 55–0 Ma Early Eocene – Present |
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| Humpback whale breaching | |
| Scientific classification |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Superorder: | Laurasiatheria |
| (unranked): | Ferungulata |
| (unranked): | Cetartiodactyla |
| Order: | Cetacea Brisson, 1762 |
| Suborders | |
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Mysticeti |
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| Diversity | |
| Around 88 species; see list of cetaceans or below. | |
The order Cetacea (
/sɨˈteɪʃⁱə/) includes the marine mammals commonly known as whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetus is Latin and is used in biological names to mean "whale"; its original meaning, "large sea animal", was more general. It comes from Ancient Greek κῆτος (kētos), meaning "whale" or "any huge fish or sea monster". In Greek mythology the monster that Perseus defeated was called Ceto, which is depicted by the constellation of Cetus. Cetology is the branch of marine science associated with the study of cetaceans.
Cetaceans are the mammals best adapted to aquatic life. Their body is fusiform (spindle-shaped). The forelimbs are modified into flippers. The tiny hindlimbs are vestigial; they do not attach to the backbone and are hidden within the body. The tail has horizontal flukes. Cetaceans are nearly hairless, and are insulated from the cooler water they inhabit by a thick layer of blubber.
Some species are noted for their high intelligence. At the 2012 meeting in Vancouver, Canada, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (the world's biggest science conference), support was reiterated for a cetacean bill of rights, listing cetaceans as "non-human persons".[2]
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Cetaceans breathe air. They surface periodically to exhale carbon dioxide and inhale a fresh supply of oxygen. During diving, a muscular action closes the blowholes (nostrils), which remain closed until the cetacean next breaks the surface; when it surfaces, the muscles open the blowholes and warm air is exhaled.
Cetaceans' blowholes have evolved to a position at the top of the head, simplifying breathing in sometimes rough seas. When the stale air, warmed from the lungs, is exhaled, it condenses as it meets colder external air. As with a terrestrial mammal breathing out on a cold day, a small cloud of 'steam' appears. This is called the 'blow' or 'spout' and varies by species in terms of shape, angle and height. Species can be identified at a distance using this characteristic.
Cetaceans can remain under water for much longer periods than most other mammals, (approximately 7–30 minutes, varying by species) due to large physiological differences. Two studied advantages of cetacean physiology let this order (and other marine mammals) forage underwater for extended periods without breathing:
Cetacean eyes are set on the side rather than the front of the head. This means that only cetaceans with pointed 'beaks' (such as dolphins) have good binocular vision forward and downward. Tear glands secrete greasy tears, which protect the eyes from the salt in the water. The lens is almost spherical, which is most efficient at focusing the minimal light that reaches deep water. Cetaceans make up for their generally poor vision (with the exception of the dolphin) with excellent hearing.
As with the eyes, cetacean ears are also small. Life in the sea accounts for the cetacean's loss of its external ears, whose function is to collect and focus airborne sound waves. However, water conducts sound better than air, so the external ear is unneeded: it is a tiny hole in the skin, just behind the eye. The highly developed inner ear can detect sounds from dozens of miles away and discern from which direction the sound comes.
Odontoceti are generally capable of echolocation.[5] From this, Odontoceti can discern the size, shape, surface characteristics, distance and movement of an object. With this ability cetaceans can search for, chase and catch fast-swimming prey in total darkness. Echolocation is so advanced in most Odontoceti that they can distinguish between prey and non-prey (such as humans or boats); captive Odontoceti can be trained to distinguish between, for example, balls of different sizes or shapes. Mysticeti have exceptionally thin, wide basilar membranes in their cochleae without stiffening agents - making their ears adapted for processing low to infrasonic frequencies.[6]
Cetaceans also use sound to communicate, whether it be groans, moans, whistles, clicks or the complex 'singing' of the humpback whale.
Besides hearing and vision, at least one species, the Tucuxi or Guiana Dolphin, is able to use electroreception to sense prey.[7]
The toothed whales such as the sperm whale, beluga, dolphins and porpoises, have teeth that they use for catching fish, squid or other marine life. They do not chew but swallow prey whole. When they catch large prey, such as when the orca (Orcinus orca) catches a seal, they bite off and swallow one chunk at a time.
Mysticeti instead have baleen plates made of keratin (the same substance as human fingernails) which hang from the upper jaw. These plates filter small animals (such as krill and fish) from the seawater. Cetaceans included in this group include the Blue, Humpback, Bowhead and Minke whales.
Not all Mysticeti feed on plankton: the larger species eat small shoaling fish, such as herring and sardine, called micronecton. The gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), is a benthic feeder, primarily eating sea floor crustaceans.
Cetaceans are mammals, that is, members of the class Mammalia. Their closest living relatives are the even-toed ungulates, such as the hippopotamus and deer.[8][9]
| Cetartiodactyla |
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Mammalian characteristics include warm-bloodedness, breathing air through their lungs, and suckling their young, and growing hair, although very little of it.
Another way of distinguishing a cetacean from a fish is the shape of the tail. Fish tails are vertical and move from side to side when the fish swims. Cetacea tails—called a fluke—are horizontal and move up and down, because cetacea spines bend in the same manner as a human spine.
The order Cetacea contains about 90 species, all marine except for 4 species of freshwater dolphins. The order contains two suborders, Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales, which includes dolphins and porpoises). The species range in size from Commerson's dolphin, smaller than a human, to the Blue Whale, the largest animal ever known to have lived.
The cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are marine mammal descendants of the artiodactyl family Raoellidae, a group of land mammals characterized by an even-toed ungulate skull, slim limbs, and an ear with significant similarities to that of early whales.[10] The terrestrial origins of cetaceans are indicated by their need to breathe air from the surface or the bones of their fins, which resemble the limbs of land mammals, including the vestigial remains of hind legs inherited from the four-legged ancestors.
The question of how land animals evolved into ocean-going leviathans was a mystery until discoveries starting in the late 1970s in Pakistan revealed several stages in the transition of cetaceans from land to sea:
| Pakicetus | Ambulocetus | Kutchicetus | Protocetus | Janjucetus (Mysticeti) | Squalodon (Odontoceti) |
This series of images does not capture the true phylogenetic evolution of a particular species, but they are illustrative representation of the evolution of cetaceans from terrestrial four-legged mammals, from their probable ancestor, through different stages of adaptation to aquatic life to modern cetaceans type; aerodynamic body shape, fully developed caudal fin and vestigial hind legs. The separation of cetaceans in suborder baleen whales and suborder toothed whales, occurred during the Oligocene (Janjucetus and Squalodon represent the early forms of their suborders).
Fossils indicate that before evolving baleen, Mysticeti also had teeth, so defining the Odontoceti via teeth alone is problematic. Instead, paleontologists have identified other features uniting fossil and modern odontocetes that are not shared by Mysticetes. It was also assumed that toothed whales evolved their asymmetrical skulls as an adaptation to their echolocation, but newer discoveries indicate that the common ancestor of the present whales actually had a contorted skull as well. Cranial asymmetry is now known to have evolved in ancient whales as part of a set of traits linked to directional hearing, including pan-bone thinning of the lower jaws, the development of mandibular fat pads, and the isolation of the ear region.[11] This likely means that while the asymmetry in the Odontoceti skull has increased over time, the Mysticeti skull has evolved from asymmetrical to symmetrical.[12]
| Characteristic | Odontoceti | Mysticeti |
| Feeding | Echolocation, fast | Filter feeder, not fast |
| Size | Smaller (except Sperm whale and Beaked Whale) | Larger (except pygmy right whale) |
| Blowhole | One | Two |
| Dentition | Teeth | Baleen plates |
| Melon | Ovoid, in anterior facial region | Vestigial or none |
| Skull and facial tissue | Dorsally asymmetric | Symmetric |
| Sexual dimorphism | Some species have larger males | Females always larger |
| Mandible | Symphyseal (fused anteriorly) | Nonsymphyseal |
| Pan bone of lower jaw | Yes | No |
| Maxillae projection | Outward over expanded supraorbital processes | Under eye orbit, with bony protuberance anterior to eye orbit |
| Olfactory nerve and bulb | Absent[13] | Vestigial[14] |
| Periotic bone | External to skull, fused with tympanic bulla | Fused with skull[15] |
The classification here closely follows Dale W. Rice, Marine Mammals of the World: Systematics and Distribution (1998), which has become the standard taxonomy reference in the field. There is very close agreement between this classification and that of Mammal Species of the World: 3rd Edition (Wilson and Reeder eds., 2005). Any differences are noted using the abbreviations "Rice"[16] and "MSW3"[1] respectively. Further differences due to recent discoveries are also noted.
Discussion of synonyms and subspecies are relegated to the relevant genus and species articles.
†Recently extinct
Bill of Rights The cetacean intelligence declaration also stated that "every individual cetacean has the right to life", "no cetacean should be held in captivity or servitude, be subject to cruel treatment, or be removed from their natural environment", and "no cetacean is the property of any state, corporation, human group or individual".[2]
| Wikispecies has information related to: Cetacea |
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cetacea |
| The Wikibook Dichotomous Key has a page on the topic of |
| Look up Cetacea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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Nederlands (Dutch)
(betreffende) walvisachtig(e)
Deutsch (German)
n. - (zo.) Waltier
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ζωολ.) κητώδες
adj. - κητώδης, κητοειδής
Português (Portuguese)
n. - cetáceo (m) (Zool.)
adj. - cetáceo (Zool.)
Русский (Russian)
животное семейства китовых
Español (Spanish)
n. - cetáceo
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - valdjur
adj. - val-
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
鲸类动物, 鲸
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 鯨類動物, 鯨
日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - クジラ目の
n. - クジラ
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) منسوب الى الحيوانات الثديه و منها الحوت (صفه) حيتاني
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - יונק ימי, לוויתן, דולפין
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