Cetacea
| Cetacea | ||||||||
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Humpback Whale breeching. | ||||||||
| Scientific Classification | ||||||||
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Cetus is Latin and is used in biological names to mean "whale"; its original meaning was more general, "large sea animal". It comes from Greek ketos, a sea monster.
Cetaceans are the mammals most fully 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 by a thick layer of blubber.
Cetacea contains 10 families, and about 78 species.
- ORDER CETACEA
- Suborder Mysticeti: baleen whales
- Family Balaenidae: right whales and Bowhead Whale
- Family Balaenopteridae: rorquals
- Family Eschrichtiidae: Gray Whale
- Family Neobalaenidae: Pygmy Right Whale
- Suborder Odontoceti: toothed whales
- Family Delphinidae: bottlenose dolphin, killer whale
- Family Monodontidae: narwhal, beluga
- Family Phocoenidae: porpoises
- Family Physeteridae: Sperm Whale
- Family Ziphidae: beaked whales
- Superfamily Platanistoidea: river dolphins
- Family Iniidae: Amazon River Dolphin
- Family Lipotidae: Chinese River Dolphin
- Family Platanistidae: Indus and Ganges River Dolphins
- Family Pontoporiidae: La Plata Dolphin
- Suborder Mysticeti: baleen whales
