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The Fascinating World of Whales: Cetacean Order Insights

Dive into the realm of marine mammals with 90 species of whales belonging to the Cetacea order. Learn about toothed and baleen whales, their feeding behaviors, movements, echolocation, diving abilities, and interesting facts about their physiology.

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The Fascinating World of Whales: Cetacean Order Insights

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  1. Marine Mammals Whales

  2. Order: Cetacea – 90 species • Whales are different from seals and sea lions because they spend their entire lifespan in water. • There are two main groups of whales: 1. Toothed whales 2. Baleen whales

  3. Toothed whales • Examples: killer whales, pilot whales, dolphins, porpoises, sperm whale • * one blowhole opening • * eat one prey item at a time/swallow prey whole • *feed in the entire water column

  4. Baleen whales • Examples: gray whale, blue whale, right whales, humpback whale • 2 blowhole openings • toothless – feed with baleen which is made from keratin. It is a food filtering system. When water is pushed out of the mouth the krill are trapped! • Keratin is the same protein found in hair and fingernails. (like stiff straw) • They eat krill (2 inches)/plankton • Feed at the surface • Gulpers vs. skimmers

  5. Comparing Toothed and Baleen Whales Ventral pleats – expand when water is taken into the mouth (found on baleen whales only).

  6. Movement • Whales move with an up and down movement of the fluke (powerstroke). Upward movement provides the power! This is different than fish which use a side to side motion. • Spyhopping: vertical upward movement to look around. • Breaching: Jumping out of the water.

  7. Echolocation: • Sound travels 4X faster in water than air. Used by whales to communicate. (we will talk about this is more detail when we do notes on dolphins)

  8. Diving: To dive whales….. 1. Hold breath 2. Rapidly exhale (90% of Oxygen exchanged compared to 20% in humans) 3. Take a new breath – DIVE! • Sperm whales – 2 hour dive time • Blue whales – 40 min dive time • Bottlenose whales (dolphins) about 15 min.

  9. Diving facts: • 1. Baleen whales don’t dive deep! Why? • A: Because plankton/krill are found at the surface • 2. Whales have more R.B.C’s than non-diving mammals. • 3. When whales dive their heart rate slows dramatically from 85 down to 12 per minute. • 4. Blood flow to nonessential organs is reduced. • #3 and #4 together are called bradycardia. • 5. Nitrogen dissolves better at high pressure ex. Think of the lungs like a pop bottle - lungs collapse – squeezes air to central part of lung where little Nitrogen is absorbed. Oxygen goes directly to blood.

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