Cetaceans Fossil range:
Early Eocene - Recent |
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Humpback Whale
breaching |
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Scientific classification |
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Suborders |
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Mysticeti |
The order Cetacea
(IPA: [siːteɪʃə], L. cetus,
whale) includes 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 Greek ketos
("sea monster"). Cetology is the branch of marine science associated
with the study of cetaceans.
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.
While the specifics are debatable, cetaceans as a group are noted for their
considerable intelligence among the animal kingdom.
The order Cetacea contains
ninety species, all marine except for five species of freshwater dolphins. The
order is divided into two suborders, Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti
(toothed whales, which includes dolphins and porpoises).
Cetaceans evolved from land mammals (most
likely from certain hoofed carnivores which also gave rise to the artiodactyls
the even-hoofed mammals, including pigs and the hippopotamus) that adapted to
marine life about 50 million years ago.
Over a period of a few
million years during the Eocene period, the cetaceans returned to the sea,
where there was a niche for large, surface-dwelling predators that had been
empty since the demise of the mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. Because of the
increase in available living space, there was no natural limit to the
cetaceans' size (i.e. the amount of weight its legs could hold) since the water
provided buoyancy. It had no longer any need for legs.
During this time, the
cetacean lost the qualities that fitted it for land existence and gained new
qualities for life at sea. Its forelimbs disappeared, and then its hind limbs;
its body became more tapered and streamlined a form that enabled it to move
swiftly through the water. The cetacean's original tail was replaced by a pair
of flukes that sculled with a vertical motion.
As part of this
streamlining process, the bones in the cetaceans' front limbs fused together.
In time, what had been the forelegs became a solid mass of bone, blubber and
tissue, making very effective flippers that balance the cetaceans' tremendous
bulk.
To preserve body heat in
cold oceanic waters, the cetacean developed blubber, a thick layer of fat
between the skin and the flesh that also acts as an emergency source of energy.
In some cetaceans the layer of blubber can be more than a foot thick. No longer
needed for warmth, the cetacean's fur coat disappeared, further reducing the
resistance of the giant body to the water.
The ear bone called the
hammer (malleus) is fused to the walls of the bone cavity where the ear bones
are, making hearing in air nearly impossible. Instead sound is transmitted
through their jaws and skull bones.
Since the cetacean is a
mammal, it needs air to breathe. Because of this, it needs to come to the
water's surface to exhale its carbon dioxide and inhale a fresh supply of
oxygen. As it dives, a muscular action closes the blowholes (nostrils), which
remain closed until the cetacean next breaks the surface. When it does, the
muscles open the blowholes and warm air is exhaled.
Cetaceans' blowholes have
evolved to a position on top of the head, allowing more time to expel stale air
and inhale fresh air. When the stale air, warmed from the lungs, is exhaled, it
condenses as it meets the cold air outside. 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 is different in terms of shape, angle and height, for
each cetacean species. Cetaceans can be identified at a distance, using this
characteristic, by experienced whalers or whale-watchers.
The cetacean's eyes are set
well back and to either side of its huge head. This means that cetaceans with
pointed 'beaks' (such as dolphins) have good binocular vision forward and
downward but others, with blunt heads (such as the Sperm Whale), can see either
side but not directly ahead or directly behind. Tear glands secrete greasy
tears, which protect the eyes from the salt in the water. Cetaceans also have
an almost spherical lens in their eyes, which is most efficient at focusing
what little light there is in the deep waters. Cetaceans make up for their
generally quite poor vision (with the exception of the dolphin) with excellent
hearing.
As with the eyes, the
cetacean's ears are also small. Life in the sea accounts for the cetacean's
loss of its external ears, whose function is to collect airborne sound waves
and focus them in order for them to become strong enough to hear well. However,
water is a better conductor of sound than air, so the external ear was no
longer needed: It is no more than a tiny hole in the skin, just behind the eye.
The inner ear, however, has become so well developed that the cetacean can not
only hear sounds tens of miles away, but it can also discern from which
direction the sound comes.
Some cetaceans are capable
of echolocation. Many toothed whales emit clicks similar to those in
echolocation, but it has not been demonstrated that they echolocate. Mysticeti
have little need of echolocation, as they prey upon small fish that would be
impractical to locate with echolocation. Some members of Odontoceti, such as
dolphins and porpoises, do perform echolocation. These cetaceans use sound in
the same way as bats - they emit a sound (called a click), which then bounces
off an object and returns to them. From this, cetaceans can discern the size,
shape, surface characteristics and movement of the object, as well as how far
away it is. 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 cetaceans can be trained to distinguish between, for
example, balls of different sizes or shapes.
Cetaceans also use sound to
communicate, whether it be groans, moans, whistles, clicks or the complex
'singing' of the Humpback Whale.
Various
Cetacea: 1- Bowhead Whale; 2- Orca; 3- Right Whale; 4- Sperm Whale; 5- Narwhal;
6- Blue Whale; 7- Rorqual; 8- Beluga
When it comes to food and
feeding, cetaceans can be separated into two distinct groups. The 'toothed
whales', Odontoceti like sperm whales, beluga whales, dolphins and porpoises,
usually have lots of teeth that they use for catching fish, squid or other
marine life. They do not chew their food, but swallow it whole. In the rare
cases that they catch large prey, as when Orca (Orcinus orca) catch a
seal, they tear 'chunks' off it that in turn are swallowed whole.
The 'baleen whales' or
Mysticeti do not have teeth. Instead they have plates made of keratin (the same
substance as human fingernails) which hang down from the upper jaw. These
plates act like a giant filter, straining small animals (such as krill and
fish) from the seawater. Cetaceans included in this group include the Blue
Whale, the Humpback Whale, the Bowhead Whale and the Minke Whale.
Not all Mysticeti feed on
plankton: the larger whales tend to eat small shoaling fish, such as herrings
and sardine, called micronecton. One species of Mysticeti, the Gray Whale (Eschrichtius
robustus), is a benthic feeder, primarily eating sea floor crustaceans.
Cetaceans are mammals, that
is, members of the class mammalia. The closest living relative of cetaceans is
the hippopotamus.
As mammals, cetaceans have
characteristics that are common to all mammals: They are warm-blooded, breathe
in air through their lungs, bear their young alive and suckle them on their own
milk, and have hair, although very little of it.
Another way of discerning a
cetacean from a fish is by the shape of the tail. The tail of a fish is
vertical and moves from side to side when the fish swims. The tail of a
cetacean called a "fluke" is horizontal and moves up and down, as
cetaceans' spines bend in the same manner as a human spine.
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" and
"MSW3" respectively. Further differences due to recent discoveries
are also noted.
Discussion of synonyms and
subspecies are relegated to the relevant genus and species articles.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cetacea&action=history