is a whale a porpoise?
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People use the terms dolphins, porpoises, and whales to describe marine mammals belonging to the order Cetacea (from the Greek work ketos, “large sea creature”), and often use them interchangeably. The orca, or killer whale, for example, is actually the largest member of the dolphin family.
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Almost half of the 80 species of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), can be found in the Pacific Ocean5.
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Whales are more closely related to humans than to fish She serves as the executive director of the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation. Whales are a member of the cetacean family, and as such, despite being wholly water-resident, whales are mammals, not fish.
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Whales, along with dolphins and porpoises, are warm-blooded mammals and breathe air like humans do. There are some significant differences between whales and fish: ... Fish use gills to extract air from water. Whales give birth to live young.
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Whales, along with dolphins and porpoises, are warm-blooded mammals and breathe air like humans do. There are some significant differences between whales and fish: ... Whales give birth to live young.
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Though killer whales, also called orcas, are considered whales by most people, they are actually members of the Delphinidae (dolphin) family. Killer whales are excellent hunters that a wide range of prey, including fish, seals, and big whales such as blue whales.
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There are 14 species of baleen whale including the blue, bowhead, right, humpback, minke and grey whale. ... These bristly baleen plates filter, sift, sieve or trap the whales' favourite prey from seawater inside their mouths.
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Whether you prefer to call them dog mermaids, sea puppies, or dogs of the sea, there is certainly no denying that seals bear a striking resemblance to man's best friend on land. ... Seals, sea lions, and walruses are all considered pinnipeds and belong to the suborder Caniformia (meaning “doglike”).
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['Balaenoptera borealis (Pacific population) — sea whale.', 'Balaenoptera musculus (Atlantic population) — blue whale.', 'Balaenoptera musculus (Pacific population) — blue whale.', "Dipodomys ordii — Ord's kangaroo rat.", 'Eubalaena glacialis — North Atlantic right whale.', 'Eubalaena japonica — North Pacific right whale.']
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Reasons an Orca Is a Dolphin. Despite being called killer whales, orcas (Orcinus orca) are actually dolphins. Historically, sailors took to calling these marine mammals whale killers after witnessing them preying on whales and other marine mammals. Over time the name changed.
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Hairlessness and Glands Although hippos and whales physically seem as different as night and day, they do display a few similarities. One notable similarity between the two groups is minimal hair -- both hippos and whales have barely any hair on their bodies. They also do not have sweat glands.
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Naturally, whales are sea creatures and can live the best in the ocean. If they ever are on land, they can survive only a couple hours. ... A lot of whale die when then are on land because they cannot support their own weight when out of the water.
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Cows are more closely related to whales than to pigs, says a genetic study that suggests a new place for whales in the evolutionary family tree. Prior studies have indicated that whales, along with dolphins and porpoises, are rather closely related to hoofed mammals with an even number of toes.
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Humpback whales can be distinguished by their small dorsal fin and long pectoral flippers, and they show their tail flukes more often. Blue whales are the biggest. They are actually grey, but appear aqua under water. Seeing one is considered to be a very special occasion.
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The short answer is: Yes, dolphins are a type of whale. ... Most whales belong to the group of toothed whales such as all dolphins and porpoises. The main differences between those two groups are, as their names indicate, that toothed whales have teeth whereas baleen whales have baleen plates in their mouth.
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Dolphins tend to have prominent, elongated “beaks” and cone-shaped teeth, while porpoises have smaller mouths and spade-shaped teeth. ... Generally speaking, dolphin bodies are leaner, and porpoises' are portly. Dolphins are also more talkative than porpoises.
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The traditional hypothesis of cetacean evolution, first proposed by Van Valen in 1966, was that whales were related to the mesonychids, an extinct order of carnivorous ungulates (hoofed animals) that resembled wolves with hooves and were a sister group of the artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates).