|
"Whales"
Whales are
the largest species of exclusively aquatic mammals,
members of the orderCetacea, which also
includes dolphins and porpoises. They include the
largest known animals ever evolved.
The
term whale is ambiguous: it can refer to all cetaceans,
to just the larger ones, or only to members of
particular families within the order Cetacea. The
latter definition is the one followed here. Whales are
those cetaceans which are neither dolphins (i.e.
members of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidea)
nor porpoises. This can lead to some confusion because
Orca ("Killer
Whales") and Pilot Whales have "whale"
in their name, but they are dolphins for the purpose of
classification.
|
