Term
| What are the two groups of cetaceans? |
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Definition
| odontocetes and mysticetes |
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Term
| What are the characteristics of Cetaceans? |
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Definition
-tetrapod vertebrate
-spend entire life in H20
- have flippers for stability and steering
-streamlined bodies with fused neck vertebrate (can't move neck)
-blubber (for insulation, streamlining and energy reserve) |
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Term
| What are the characteristics of odontocetes? |
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Definition
- toothed whales (sperm whale, dolphin, porpoises, orcas)
-swallow prey whole (fish, squid)
-echolocation for finding/stunning prey
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Term
| Largest odontocete? Most endangered cetacean? |
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Definition
- Largest: sperm whale
- Endangered: Chinese river dolphin |
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Term
| What are the characteristics of Mysticetes? |
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Definition
-baleen whales
-plates of keratin that strain prey from H2O (krill and fish)
- largest animal ever |
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Term
| What are the three groups of mysticetes? |
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Definition
- rorqual whales
- gray whales
- bowhead and right whales |
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Term
| Characteristics of rorqual whales |
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Definition
-include: blue, fin, humpback, minke, sei
-feed on fish schools, krill swarms
-expandable throat pleats
-fastest swimmers
-low frequency sounds |
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Term
| Characteristics of Gray Whales |
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Definition
-short and coarse baleen
-feed by straining sediments
-barnacles on skin
-long migrations |
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Term
| Characteristics of Bowhead and Right Whales |
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Definition
-slow and easy to kill
-lack dorsal fin
-most endangered marine cetacean (right whale) |
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Term
| Cetacean swimming patterns and adaptations |
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Definition
-dorso-ventral undulations of body
-tail flukes for propulsion
-streamlined bodies
-breathe with blowhole |
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Term
| Why do whales migrate? and where? |
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Definition
- Why: feeding(summer) and reproduction (winter)
-Where: move south in sept. and north in march |
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Term
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Definition
-emit soundwaves and listen for echoes
-low frequency clicks for long distances (for topography and stunning prey)
-high frequency clicks for near distances (size, shape or type of material)
-sound focused by melon and detected by lower jaw |
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Term
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Definition
-mating/ birthing at sea
-courtship behaviors
-male sex organs internal (streamline)
-low reproductive rate
-short copulation |
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Term
| Characteristics of Sirenians |
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Definition
-sea cows (manatees, dugongs, steurs)
-large animals, no natural predators
- related to elephants
-grazers (seagrasses)
-lack rear limbs
-undulations |
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Term
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Definition
- low reproductive rate
-destruction of seagrass beds
- injury from boat propellers
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Term
| Whaling: who does it and why? |
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Definition
- Native Americans for survival
-Europeans, Japan...
- use: blubber for oil, meat, baleen for corsets |
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Term
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Definition
-largest threat to cetaceans
-"extra stuff" caught when fishing (ie: dolphins) |
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Term
| Importance of animals lower in the food chain |
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Definition
- less food for sea lions=less food for orcas
- less fish=less pinnipeds (that orcas eat) |
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Term
| How does noise (from humans) affect mammals? |
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Definition
- low frequencies travel far (from oil drilling, construction, sonar navigation)
- interferes with echolocation
-behavioral changes (breathing and diving)
-avoid breeding ground |
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