Marine Mammal Quiz

Mammal Quiz

Order Cetaccea

-Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises

-Convergent evolution

-Cetacceans look like fish but did not evolve from them

-The cetacceans were land mammals. That is why they have lungs

-The cetacceans have four limbs as embryos

-Cetacceans rear flipper is horizontal and fish have vertical rear flippers

-Unlike most mammals the cetaccean nostril is not in the front of the face but on their back

-Blow Hole

-The cetacceans are mammals that never need to come on land

-The blow hole helps them to breath with very little breach of the surface

Baleen Whales (Toothless Whales)

-Instead of teeth baleeen whales have fibrous plates called baleen

-Baleen is made of keratin just like hair or nails

-Water is taken into the mouth and then pushed back out through the baleen

-The baleen filters the water out but leaves the organic matter inside

-The whale then swallows the organic matter

-Most baleen whales eat krill

-Baleen whales are the largest animals in the world

-A blue whale can be between 80 and 100ft

-One of the largest animals to ever live

Toothed Whales

-These include all the other cetacceans, including dolphins

-Because they have teeth they eat fish and squid

-The largest is the sperm whale

-The sperm whale was one of the most hunted

-Its head is full of whale oil which was used for burning lamps

-Sperm whales eat a lot of squid and undigested squid beaks and debris accumulate in their gut

-The then throw up large globs of it called ambergis

-Ambergis is an ingredient in expensive perfume

-A very popular toothed whale is the killer whale called an Orca

Porpoise Vs Dolphin

-A Porpoise is a small short nosed whale

-A Dolphin can be identified by its long nose called a beak

-Cetaceans, especially dolphins use echolocation

Sea mammals also have other adaptations for living in the ocean with lungs

-Marine mammals have myoglobin. Land mammals use hemoglobin to transport oxygen through their body

-Marine mammals like dolphins use myoglobin because it can not only transport oxygen but it can store it

-Marine mammals like the sperm whale can hold their breath for hours

-Another marine mammal adaptation is while diving their heart only sends blood to vital organs and selectively ignores others