Odontoceti
The Odontoceti is a suborder of the cetaceans. They are the toothed whales.
| Toothed whales | |
|---|---|
| |
| Bottlenose dolphin | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Parvorder: | Odontoceti Flower, 1869 |
| Families | |
|
| |
| Diversity | |
| Around 73 | |
The Odontoceti includes all the whales which eat prey larger than plankton. Examples are: sperm whales, beaked whales, dolphins, and others. As the name suggests, the suborder has teeth rather than the baleen of Mysticeti whales. This means they are predators of small to large sized prey.
The Sperm Whale Physeter, the Killer Whale Orca and the Pilot Whale Globicephala all take large prey. By means of co-operation, Killer Whales can take prey larger than themselves, up to and including Blue Whale calves. Sperm Whales are specialist feeders on giant squid.
Taxonomy
- Superfamily Delphinoidea; Porpoises, Dolphins, Pilot Whales, Killer Whales, Narwhal
- Superfamily Inioidea: some South American river dolphins
- Superfamily Lipotoidea: Chinese River Dolphin
- Superfamily Physeteroidea: Sperm Whales
- Superfamily Platanistoidea: River Dolphins proper
- Superfamily Ziphioidea: Bottlenose Whales, Beaked Whales
Odontoceti Media
A whale as depicted by Conrad Gessner, 1587, in his Historiae animalium
Fossil of Squalodon, an extinct whale*Took the photo at Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, Brussels
Physeter macrocephalus NOAA
Kogia sima (transparent background)
Platanista gangetica
Ziphius cavirostris
Lipotes vexillifer
Pontoporia blainvillei
Inia geoffrensis young
Orcinus orca
Short-beaked common dolphin pod swimming
Researchers pushed a pole with a sponge attached along the substrate to simulate the sponging behavior by dolphins
A series of ordinary clicks
A sperm whale creak.
A recording of sperm whales communicating with each other through clicks.
A series of slow clicks produced by the sperm whale.
A sperm whale is killed and stripped of its blubber and spermaceti
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References
- ↑ Hooker, Sascha K. (2009). Perrin, William F.; Wursig, Bernd; Thewissen, J.G M (eds.). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (2 ed.). Academic Press. p. 1173. ISBN 978-0-12-373553-9.
- ↑ Reeves R. et al. 2003. Dolphins, whales, and porpoises. IUCN Species Survival Commission Specialists Group.