Marine mammals in the cetacean family include whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
Why are dolphins not fish but mammals?
Dolphins cannot breathe in water using gills as fish can, do not have scales, and are not cold-blooded. Dolphins are mammals that returned to the sea millions of years ago. Being a mammal means that: they breathe air (and do not have gills like fish);
Why whale and dolphins are mammals?
Whales are mammals which means that, like humans and other land mammals, they have three inner ear bones and hair, they breathe air, and the females produce milk through mammary glands and suckle their young.
Is whale mammal or fish?
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and porpoises.
Is a whale a mammal? – Related Questions
Is Octopus a fish?
An octopus is neither a fish nor an amphibian. It is a mollusk. More specifically, it belongs to the taxonomic class Cephalopoda, along with squid and cuttlefish. Octopuses and squids are the most intelligent of all mollusks.
Is Turtle a mammal?
Turtles are reptiles of the order Chelonii or Testudines characterized by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs and acting as a shield.
Is crocodile a mammal?
Crocodiles are large reptiles found in tropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. They are members of the order Crocodilia, which also includes caimans, gharials and alligators. There are 13 crocodile species, and they range in size.
Is a chicken a mammal?
Chickens are not mammals.
They have feathers as opposed to hair or fur, and they have wings, even though they don’t fly very well. They lack the teeth that most mammals have, they exclusively lay eggs, and they don’t nurse their chicks with milk.
What is the 3 types of mammals?
Mammals can be generally classified into three broad groups: egg-laying monotremes, marsupials, and placentals.
Why whale is not a fish?
-Whales are warm-blooded animals, whereas fishes belong to cold-blooded animals. -Whales breathe air through a pair of lungs, while fishes respire through its gills. -Whales possess mammary glands, but such mammary glands are not found in fishes.
Is a fish a mammal?
Fish are not mammals for the following reasons: they are cold-blooded, they can’t breathe air, and they don’t nurse their babies. Many people are confused on this subject because scientists used to think certain mammals were fish, such as dolphins, whales, and seals.
Why whale is mammal but shark is a fish?
what are they? Dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions, and otters are all mammals. They give birth to live young and nurse their young with milk. In contrast, even though some sharks give birth to live young, sharks are fish.
What type of animal is a whale?
Whale/Representative species
Do whales have milk?
Nursing their young with milk is one of the things that defines mammals, so whales definitely do have mammary glands and they do produce milk.
What is the largest mammal?
The Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus ssp. Intermedia) is the biggest animal on the planet, weighing up to 400,000 pounds (approximately 33 elephants) and reaching up to 98 feet in length.
Do whales lay eggs?
In conclusion, whales and dolphins do not lay eggs because they are marine mammals. Therefore, they give birth just like us humans. However, gestation depends on the species.
Do sharks give birth?
There are over 500 species of shark living in waters around the world and the majority give birth to live young. The remainder are oviparous, meaning they lay eggs.
Do dolphins sleep?
Dolphins alternate which half of the brain is sleeping periodically so that they can get the rest they need without ever losing consciousness. When sleeping, dolphins often rest motionless at the surface of the water, breathing regularly or they may swim very slowly and steadily, close to the surface.