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The family Balaenidae, the right whales, contains two genera and four species. All right whales have no ventral grooves; a distinctive head shape with a strongly arched, narrow rostrum, bowed lower jaw; lower lips that enfold the sides and front of the rostrum; and long, narrow, elastic baleen plates (up to nine times longer than wide) with fine baleen fringes.
A stranding is when a cetacean leaves the water to lie on a beach. In some cases, groups of whales strand together. The best known are mass strandings of pilot whales and sperm whales. Stranded cetaceans usually die, because their as much as 90 metric tons (99 short tons) body weight compresses their lungs or breaks their ribs. Smaller whales ...
Cetacean intelligence is the overall intelligence and derived cognitive ability of aquatic mammals belonging in the infraorder Cetacea (cetaceans), including baleen whales, porpoises, and dolphins. In 2014, a study found that the long-finned pilot whale has more neocortical neurons than any other mammal, including humans, examined to date.
The list of extinct cetaceans features the extinct genera and species of the order Cetacea.The cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are descendants of land-living mammals, the even-toed ungulates.
The narwhal is a stocky cetacean with a relatively blunt snout, a large melon, and a shallow ridge in place of a dorsal fin. Males of this species have a large (1.5–3.0 m (4 ft 11 in – 9 ft 10 in)) long tusk, which is a protruding left canine thought to function as a weapon, a tool for feeding, in attracting mates or sensing water salinity.
The blue whale is the largest living animal in the world in the present epoch. Its summer range extends from the east of Canada to Svalbard, and this range is potentially occupied by two separate groups. [10] Like other rorquals, blue whales appear to migrate further south during the winter.
Artiocetus' name arises from a combination of cetus and artiodactyl, as this fossil was the first to show that early whales possessed artiodactyl-like ankles.. Artiocetus belongs to the infraorder Cetacea, which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises.
The largest known basilosaurid, Perucetus colossus, is believed to be even bigger, with a length of about 17–20 metres (56–66 ft) and possibly comparable to, if not larger than, the modern blue whale in terms of weight, [15] though other researchers argue that it was much lighter.