whale

AI overview

Whales are large marine mammals that live entirely in the ocean and are found in waters around the world, belonging to a diverse group within the broader family of cetaceans that also includes dolphins and porpoises. They matter because they are significant members of marine ecosystems and have long been important to human culture and scientific understanding of how mammals evolved and adapted to life in the sea.

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Research

15,844 papers

Whale recovery and the emerging human-wildlife conflict over Antarctic krill.ReviewNature communications · 2024Savoca MS, Kumar M, Sylvester Z et al.DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51954-x
Deciphering the whale's secrets to have a long life.ReviewExperimental gerontology · 2021Lagunas-Rangel FADOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2021.111425
Recasting the whale's wonderful net.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Williams TMDOI: 10.1126/science.ade3117
Baleen whale inhalation variability revealed using animal-borne video tags.PeerJ · 2022Nazario EC, Cade DE, Bierlich KC et al.DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13724
The largest of August Krogh animals: Physiology and biomechanics of the blue whale revisited.ReviewComparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology · 2021Goldbogen JA, Madsen PTDOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2020.110894
Baleen whale prey consumption based on high-resolution foraging measurements.Nature · 2021Savoca MS, Czapanskiy MF, Kahane-Rapport SR et al.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03991-5
Killer whale predation on an Antarctic minke whale in the northern Antarctic Peninsula.Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias · 2024Seyboth E, Bassoi M, Lima RC et al.DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765202420230731
Whale strandings: hypothesis.Medical hypotheses · 1978Mawson ARDOI: 10.1016/0306-9877(78)90007-5

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Wikidata facts

Image: Eubalaena glacialis with calf.jpg

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Commons category: Whales
P8168: Kittim

Sources (7)

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~40 min read

Article

31 sections

Contents

Etymology and definitions
Taxonomy and evolution
Phylogeny
Evolution
Biology
Anatomy
Senses
Communication
Intelligence
Life cycle
Sleep
Ecology
Foraging and predation
Whale pump
Whale fall
Relationship with humans
Whaling
Other threats
Conservation
Whale watching
In myth, literature and art
In captivity
See also
References
Bibliography
Books
Articles
Websites
News
Other
Further reading

Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and porpoises. Dolphins and porpoises may be considered whales from a formal, cladistic perspective. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla, which consists of even-toed ungulates. Their closest non-cetacean living relatives are the hippopotamuses, from which they and other cetaceans diverged about 54 million years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have had their last common ancestor around 34 million years ago. Mysticetes include four extant (living) families: Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Balaenidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), and Eschrichtiidae (the grey whale). Odontocetes include the Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals), Physeteridae (the sperm whale), Kogiidae (the dwarf and pygmy sperm whale), and Ziphiidae (the beaked whales), as well as the six families of dolphins and porpoises which are not considered whales in the informal sense.

Whales are fully aquatic, open-ocean animals: they can feed, mate, give birth, suckle and raise their young at sea. Whales range in size from the and dwarf sperm whale to the and blue whale, which is the largest known animal that has ever lived. The sperm whale is the largest toothed predator on Earth. Several whale species exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the females are larger than males.