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toothed whale


n.

Any of various whales of the suborder Odontoceti, having numerous conical teeth.


 
 

Common term for members of the cetacean suborder Odontoceti. Toothed whales have slicing teeth and a throat large enough to swallow chunks of giant squid, cuttlefish, and fish of all kinds. Included in this group are the beluga, killer whale, pilot whales, sperm whale, and mammalian dolphins, porpoises, and narwhals.

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WordNet: toothed whale
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: any of several whales having simple conical teeth and feeding on fish etc.


 
Wikipedia: toothed whale
Toothed whales
Fossil range: Latest Eocene - Recent
Bottlenose Dolphin
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Odontoceti
Flower, 1869
Diversity
Around 73; see List of cetaceans or below.
Families

See text.


The toothed whales (systematic name Odontoceti) form a suborder of the cetaceans. As the name suggests, the suborder is characterized by having teeth (rather than baleen as do animals in the other suborder of cetaceans, Mysticeti). Toothed whales are active hunters, feeding on fish, squid, and in some cases marine mammals.

Anatomy

Toothed whales have a single blowhole on the top of the head (while the baleen whales possess two of them). The nostrils are not fused; one of them has become dominant over the other.

As an adaptation for their echolocation, toothed whale skulls have become asymmetric. Their brains are relatively big, although real growth didn't occur before their echolocation started to evolve. Toothed whales' brains have a poor connection between the two hemispheres and an organ called a melon on their heads is used as a lens to focus sound waves. Vocal chords are not present; their sounds are produced in the blowhole system instead. Toothed whales have lost their sense of smell, as well as their saliva glands.

Except for the Sperm Whale, most toothed whales are smaller than the baleen whales. The teeth differ considerably between the species. They may be numerous, with some dolphins bearing over 100 teeth in their jaws. At the other extreme are the Narwhal with its single long tusk and the almost toothless beaked whales with bizarre teeth only in males. Not all species are believed to use their teeth for feeding. For instance, the Sperm Whale likely uses its teeth for aggression and showmanship.

Behaviour

Toothed_Whale_Physical_Characteristics.svg

Vocals

Vocalizations are of great importance for toothed whales. While many species also maintain a broad variety of calls to communicate; all species investigated so far use short click sound for purposes of echolocation. Sperm whales use low frequencies (a few to perhaps 50 kHz), while other employ more narrow band high frequency sounds (porpoises, Cephalorhynchus species like Hector's dolphin). Most dolphin species use very broad band clicks.

Movement

Most toothed whales swim rapidly. The smaller species occasionally ride waves, such as the bow waves of ships. Dolphins can be frequently encountered this way. They are also famous for their acrobatic breaching from the water, e.g. the Spinner Dolphin.

Social behaviour

Generally, toothed whales live in groups of up to a dozen animals. These groups, called pods or schools, occasionally merge to form "superpods", aggregations of up to thousands of whales. Toothed whales are capable of complex interactions, such as cooperative hunting. In captivity, some species display a high potential for learning; for this reason they are considered being among the most intelligent animals.

Human impact

The Sperm Whale has been hunted commercially for a long time (see whaling). While small whales like the Pilot Whale today are still being pursued, the main threat for most species is accidental capture in fishing nets.

Keeping small whales (mostly Bottlenose Dolphins, Orcas, or Belugas) in captivity is a great attraction for ocean parks and zoos. However, it is controversial because of the marine mammals' need for large spaces.

Taxonomy

zh-yue:齒鯨亞目


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Toothed whale" Read more

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