whales

By Brighton liu Summer2011

WHAT IS AWHALE?

Whales are large, intelligent, aquatic mammals. They breathe air through blowhole(s) into lungs (unlike fish who breathe using gills). Whales have sleek, streamlined bodies that move easily through the water. They are the only mammals, other than manatees (seacows), that live their entire lives in the water, and the only mammals that have adapted to life in the open oceans.

Whale information sheet

BASILOSAURUS Basilosaurus cetoides was an Archaeoceti whale, a primitive, extinct, toothed whale with a pointed snout from the Eocene epoch, 50 million years ago. It was about 45-70 feet (14-21 m) long. BELUGA WHALE Delphinapterus leucas is a toothed whale that is white as an adult, grows to be about 15 feet (4.6 m) long and weighs about 3,300 pounds (1500 kg). They live in frigid arctic and subarctic waters, but many migrate to warmer water in the summer. They are also known as "sea canaries" because of their songs. BLUE WHALE Balaenoptera musculus is the largest animal that ever lived on Earth - even bigger than any of the dinosaurs. Blue whales are up to 110 feet (34 m) long and weigh up to 174 tons (180,000 kg). They eat krill and small fish. Blue whales are an endangered species. BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN Tursiops truncatus is a small cetacean that has a long, beaklike snout, a falcate (sickle-shaped) dorsal fin, and conical teeth. It is a toothed whale (Odontoceti). BOWHEAD WHALE Balaena mysticetus is a baleen whale that lives only in the Arctic and is rich in blubber. It has a large, bow-shaped head; the head is up to 40% of its entire length. Bowhead whales are about 50-60 feet (15-18.5 m) long and weigh about 60-80 tons. They are an endangered species.

Whale information sheet

DWARF SPERM WHALE Kogia simus is a small toothed whale. It that has a very large head and large teeth. It is about 9 feet long (2.7 m). They are deep divers and eat squid, fish, octopus, eels, etc. FIN WHALE Balaenoptera physalus is a very large baleen whale, the second largest animal in the world. They are about 70+ feet (21 m) long. They have 55-100 throat grooves and 260-474 fine baleen plates. GRAY WHALE Eschrichtius robustus is a baleen whale that is about 45 feet (14 m) long and weighs up to 70,000 pounds. They are benthic feeders (bottom feeders). Gray whales migrate from Alaska to the Baja peninsula in winter. They are a protected species. HUMPBACK WHALE Megaptera novaeangliae is baleen whale with a hump as a part of its dorsal fin. Humpback behavior includes acrobatic leaping out of the water, slapping of its fins and flukes on the water, and a song that includes long sequences of squeaks, grunts, and other sounds. They eat mostly krill, plankton, and herring. It is a protected species.

Whale information sheet

MINKE WHALE Balaenoptera acutorostrata is the smallest baleen whale. It has a huge head - up to one quarter of the length of its body. It weighs up to 9.5 tons and is up to 30 feet (9 m) long. NARWHAL Monodon monoceros is a toothed whale from the Arctic that lives in small pods. The males have a large, spiral tooth. They eat fish, squid, and crustaceans. ORCA or KILLER WHALE Orcinus orca are toothed whales, powerful carnivores that eat fish, squid, and marine mammals. They live in small pods and grow to be about 27 feet long (8 m) and weigh about 8,000 - 12,000 pounds (3600-5400 kg). PILOT WHALE Genus Globicephala is about 20 feet (6 m) long. It eats squid. Pilots sometimes beach themselves - it isn't known why. PYGMY SPERM WHALE Kogia breviceps is the smallest whale. It is a toothed whale that has a very large head and large teeth. It is about 13 feet long (4 m). They are deep divers and eat squid, fish, octopus, eels, etc.

Whale information sheet

RIGHT WHALE Right whales (Genus Eubalaena) are baleen whales that are black with some white on their chins, have large heads (that are up to 1/3 of their body length), and weigh up to 100 tons. They are slow swimmers and migrate seasonally. They are very rare and are an endangered species. SEI WHALE Balaenoptera borealis is a dark-gray, stream-lined baleen whale that is 50-60 feet (15.5-18 m) long. It swims in small pods of 3-5 whales and has very fine baleen that traps very small particles of food. SPERM WHALE Physeter macrocephalus is the largest toothed whale. The sperm whale has a very large head and brain, large teeth, is gray in color, averages about 50-60 feet (1618.5 m) long, and weighs about 15-20 tons. It is the deepest diving whale; it can dive down to more than 3,280 feet (1,000 m). It is a bottom feeder that eat squid, fish, octopus, eels, etc. Sperm whales have only one blowhole. They produce ambergris. The sperm whale is an endangered species.

WHALE EXTREMES

BIGGEST The biggest whales are the Blue whales. They are also the biggest animals that ever lived on Earth. The blue whales are BIGGER THAN ANY of the dinosaurs were! These baleen whales grow up to 110 feet long. THe second biggest is the Fin Whale. The largest toothed whales are male sperm whales, which are over 50 feet long and weigh about 43 tons. SMALLEST The smallest Cetacean is Hector's dolphin, less than 5 feet long. Outside of the dolphin family, the smallest whale is the dwarf sperm whale which grows to be about 8.5 feet long (2.6 m). LOUDEST Blue whales are the loudest animals on Earth! Their call reaches levels up to 188 decibels. This whistle can be heard hundreds or perhaps even thousands of miles away. The blue whale is louder than a jet, which reaches only 140 decibels! Human shouting is only 70 decibels; sounds over 120-130 decibels are painful to human ears. FASTEST The fastest whales are: Orcas and pilot whales, who can swim over 30 mph (48 km) in bursts in order to catch prey. Dall's porpoise may be even faster. The fastest of the great whales is the Sei Whale, which can swim at about 23 mph (20 knots) in short bursts.

WHALE EXTREMES

DEADLIEST The deadliest whale is the killer whale, or orca. It is also the deadliest predator in the oceans. Each day, an orca needs to eat hundreds of pound of fish, marine mammals (including other whales), squid, sea birds, etc. They need to eat 3-4% of their body weight each day (babies eat about 10% of their body weight daily). They don't chew their prey, but generally swallow it whole. Orcas are skilled hunters; they change their hunting strategies depending on their location and type of prey. They can hunt in pods, cooperating to circle school of fish or other prey to attack more efficiently. DEEPEST DIVERS The sperm whale dives the deepest of all whales. It goes as deep as 10,500 feet (3,200) below the surface to hunt for giant squid. These dives last about 40 minutes, with a subsequent rest at the surface for at least 10 minutes. MOST COMPLEX SONGS Male humpbacks sing the most complex songs and are the noisiest whales. They have long, varied, eerie, and beautiful songs that include recognizable sequences of squeaks, grunts, and other sounds. The songs have the largest range of frequencies used by whales, ranging from 20-9,000 Hertz. Only males have been recorded singing. They sing the complex songs only in warm waters, perhaps used for mating purposes. In cold waters, they make rougher sounds, scrapes and groans, perhaps used for locating large masses of krill (the tiny crustaceans that they eat).

WHALE EXTREMES

LONGEST TOOTH Narwhals have the longest tooth, up to 7-10 feet (2-3 m) long. BIGGEST BRAIN Sperm Whale has the biggest brain. It weighs up to 20 pounds (9 kg). LONGEST MIGRATION The Gray whale migrates from the Arctic ocean (northwest of Alaska in the Chukchi Sea) to the Baja peninsula off Mexico, and back each year. They travel about 12,500 miles (20,110 km) each year, staying near the coast. MOST STABLE GROUP STRUCTURE Killer and pilot whales live in large, extremely stable pods. The pod contains many generations of whales that remain together for life. They cooperate in hunting, migrating and care of the young. LONGEST BALEEN Bowhead whales have the longest baleen. The bowhead whale has about 350 pairs of black baleen plates with silver-colored bristles hanging from the jaws. The baleen is very fine; they are about 175.5 inches long and 14 inches wide

WHALE EVOLUTION
Primitive whales evolved during the early Eocene period, at least 53 - 54 million years ago. Fossil remains indicate that whales evolved from hoofed land mammals - perhaps the shore-dwelling, hyena-like Mesonychid that started a returned, bit by bit, to the sea roughly 50 million years ago. Another possible step in whale ancestry is the otter-like Ambulocetus, an extinct mammal the size of a sea lion, 10 feet (3 m) long and about 650 pounds. Its limbs allowed it to swim and could also support it on land. It had long, powerful jaws with shark-like teeth, a small brains, and a pelvis fused to its backbone (like land-dwelling mammals but unlike whales). Himalayecetus subathuensis is the oldest-known whale, about 53.5 million years old. Its fossilized jawbone and teeth were found in the Simla Hills of northern India, in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. This area was underwater (in the Tethys sea) during the Tertiary period (when India was an island off Asia). This whale may have spent some of its time on land. The later Pakicetus, a primitive whale with pointed teeth like Mesonychid and a pinched brain case like Ambulocetus, had a water-adapted inner ear but still had four limbs. It had nostrils located at the front of its head; it had no blowhole! Rodhocetus, even more whale-like, had four short limbs (the femur or thigh bone was only 8 inches - 20 cm long) but had a whale-like body and its pelvis was no longer fused to the backbone. It had a long snout with many teeth. Dorudon atrox, another early whale, was about 20 feet (6 m) long. Its arms were small, flattened flippers. The rear limbs were only about 4 inches (10 cm) long. It also had a long snout with many teeth. Basilosaurus, a very primitive, extinct whale, had a tiny head and pointed snout with teeth, unlike modern-day whales which have large heads and a blunter snout. It was about 65 ft (20 m) long. Baleen whales evolved from the toothed whales during the Oligocene Epoch, roughly 30 million years ago. The earliestknown baleen whale was Aetiocetus, which still had all its teeth, but it also had a loose jaw hinge like later baleen whales.

WHALE CLASSIFICATION

There are two types of whales alive today: toothed whales, Odontoceti, and baleen whales, Mysticeti. Toothed whales have teeth, are predators that eat fish, squid, and marine mammals, have a single blowhole, and use echolocation. Baleen whales are larger than the toothed whales, are filter feeders that use baleen to sieve food (baleen is a comb-like structure that filters the baleen whales' food from the water), and have 2 blowholes. A primitive groups of cetaceans, the Archaeoceti, evolved during the Eocene epoch, about 50 million years ago. The following is the Linnaean taxonomy of cetaceans: Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata (vertebrates) Class: Mammalia (mammals) Order: Cetacea Whales belong to the order Cetacea (from the Greek word "cetus" which means whale), which is divided into the following suborders: Odontoceti or toothed whales - These whales have teeth and a single blowhole. family Physeteridae - Large heads Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) family Kogiidae -

WHALE CLASSIFICATION
Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps) Dwarf Sperm Whale (Kogia simus) family Zipihiidae - the many Beaked Whales, including: Andrew's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bowdoini) Arnoux's Beaked Whale (Berardius arnuxii) Baird's Beaked Whale (Berardius bairdii) Blainville's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) Cuvier's Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris) Gervais' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon europaeus) Ginkgo-Toothed Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens) Gray's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon grayi) Hector's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon hectori) Hubb's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon carlhubbsi) Longman's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon pacificus) Northern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) Southern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon planifrons)

WHALE CLASSIFICATION
Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps) Dwarf Sperm Whale (Kogia simus) family Zipihiidae - the many Beaked Whales, including: Andrew's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bowdoini) Arnoux's Beaked Whale (Berardius arnuxii) Baird's Beaked Whale (Berardius bairdii) Blainville's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) Cuvier's Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris) Gervais' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon europaeus) Ginkgo-Toothed Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens) Gray's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon grayi) Hector's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon hectori) Hubb's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon carlhubbsi) Longman's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon pacificus) Northern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) Southern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon planifrons) Sowerby's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bidens) Straptoothed Whale (Mesoplodon layardii) Stejneger's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon stejnegeri) Tasman Beaked Whale (Tasmacetus shepherdi) True's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon mirus)

WHALE CLASSIFICATION
Stejneger's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon stejnegeri) Tasman Beaked Whale (Tasmacetus shepherdi) True's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon mirus) family Delphinidae - Oceanic Dolphins, large, with a falcate dorsal fin, Pilot Whales Atlantic Humpbacked Dolphin (Sousa teuszii) Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (Stenella plagiodon) Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus) Black Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus eutropia) Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Clymene Dolphin (Stenella clymene) Commerson's Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus comm

Whale classification

Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Dusky Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) False Killer Whale (Pseudorca crassidens) Fraser's Dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei) Indo-Pacific Humpbacked Dolphin (Sousa chinensis) Heaviside's Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus heavisidii) Hector's Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori) Hourglass Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus cruciger) Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) Long-Finned Pilot Whale (Globicephala melaena) Melon-Headed Whale (Peponocephala electra) Northern Right Whale Dolphin (Lissodelphis borealis) Pacific White-Sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) Peale's Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus australis) Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata) Risso's Dolphin (Grampus griseus) Rough-Toothed Dolphin (Steno bredanensis)

Whale classification
Short-Finned Pilot Whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) Southern Right Whale Dolphin (Lissodelphis peronii) Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris) Spotted Dolphin (Stenella attenuata) Striped Dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) Tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis) White-Beaked Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) family Monodontidae - white whales with no dorsal fin and a blunt head. Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas ) Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) family Platanistidae - river dolphins - light colored and long beaks Amazon River Dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) Chinese River Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) Franciscana (Pontoporia blainvillei) Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica) Indus River Dolphin (Platanista minor) family Iniidae - Amazon River Dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) ??? family Pontoporiidae -

Whale classification
Yangtze River Dolphin La Plata Dolphin family Phocoenidae - Porpoises - small, with reduced beak and triangular dorsal fin if present. Burmeister's Porpoise (Phocoena spinipinnis) Cochito (Phocoena sinus) Dall's Porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) Harbour Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) Spectacled Porpoise (Phocoena dioptrica)

Whale classification

. Mysticeti or baleen whales - blue whales, humpback whales, gray whales and right whales. These "great whales" are among the largest animals on earth. They have baleen plates instead of teeth, which they use to filter food. They are larger than the toothed whales and have two blowholes. Family Eschrichtiidae - the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) is the only bottom feeder. As it swims along the bottom of the ocean stirring up sediment, it takes the nutrient-rich murky water into its mouth, and forces it out through its short baleen, retaining tiny organisms. Family Balaenopteridae (the rorqual whales; rorqual is Norwegian for furrow). These whales have 25-100 parallel throat grooves that extend from the throat to the flippers. When they eat, these grooves expand, allowing them to take huge gulps of water, forcing it through their short baleen to filter out tiny organisms. They have long, sleek bodies, a median notch, and a small dorsal fin Subfamily: Balaenopterinae - streamlined body, small, falcate dorsal fin Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) Bryde's Whale (Balaenoptera edeni) Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus) Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis) Subfamily: Megapterinae - long flippers with rough edges

Whale classification
Humpback Whale (Megeptera novaeangliae) Family Balaenidae - the right whales swim along the surface open-mouthed, skimming the water with long, fine baleen. They have no dorsal fin, no throat grooves, and a huge, arched jaw. Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus) Northern Right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena australis) Family Neobalaenidae - bowed head, short baleen, falcate dorsal fin. Pygmy Right Whale (Caperea marginata)

Whale classification

Suborder Archaeoceti (archaeocetes or zeuglodonts) - extinct, primitive whales from the Eocene Family Protocetidae Pakicetus Protocetus Family Dorudontidae Zygorhiza Family Basilosauridae Basilosaurus