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The melon-headed whale is the only member of the genus Peponocephala.First recorded from a specimen collected in Hawaiʻi in 1841, the species was originally described as a member of the dolphin family and named Lagenorhynchus electra by John Edward Gray in 1846.
The melon is structurally part of the nasal apparatus and comprises most of the mass tissue between the blowhole and the tip of the snout. The function of the melon is not completely understood, but scientists believe it is a bioacoustic component, providing a means of focusing sounds used in echolocation and creating a similarity between characteristics of its tissue and the surrounding water ...
Scientific name Status Population Distribution Size Picture Melon-headed whale: Peponocephala electra Gray, 1846: LC: Unknown [o] 225 kg (496 lb) Genus Pseudorca – one species Common name Scientific name Status Population Distribution Size Picture False killer whale: Pseudorca crassidens Owen, 1846: NT: Unknown [p] 1.5–2 t (1.7–2.2 short ...
Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) is a marine mammal and dolphin, the only species of the genus Grampus.Some of the most closely related species to these dolphins include: pilot whales (Globicephala spp.), pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata), melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra), and false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens). [5]
Globicephalinae is a subfamily of oceanic dolphins that includes the pilot whales (Globicephala spp.), the pygmy killer whale (Feresa attenuata), the rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis), the false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens), the melon-headed whale (Peponocephala electra), Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus), and the snubfin dolphins (Orcaella spp.).
The melon consists of fat, and the skull of any such creature containing a melon will have a large depression. The melon size varies between species, the bigger it is, the more dependent they are on it. A beaked whale, for example, has a small bulge sitting on top of its skull, whereas a sperm whale's head is filled mainly with the melon.
A researcher fires a biopsy dart at an orca.The dart will remove a small piece of the whale's skin and bounce harmlessly off the animal. Cetology (from Greek κῆτος, kētos, "whale"; and -λογία, -logia) or whalelore (also known as whaleology) is the branch of marine mammal science that studies the approximately eighty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises in the scientific ...
The False killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) is the 3rd largest species in the delphinid family, with a length of up to six meters, a black coat and rounded head reminiscent of pilot whales, but a more elongated body, an almost melon-less head and a larger mouth. Its behavior is also more energetic.