Whales, dolphins, and other cetaceans.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
Which adaptation helps whales and dolphins retain body heat in cold water?
Blubber works like a built-in wetsuit, slowing heat loss through a cetacean's skin.
Commercial shipping noise overlaps most directly with the low-frequency calls of which group?
Vessel noise can shrink the distance over which baleen whales hear one another's calls.
Which feeding method lets a right whale swim continuously with its mouth open?
Right whales trap copepods in hairlike baleen fringes while seawater passes through their open mouths.
Biologically, every dolphin belongs to which larger group?
Dolphins are odontocetes, the toothed branch of cetaceans that also includes sperm whales and narwhals.
Which paired tissues vibrate to generate echolocation clicks in most toothed whales?
Toothed whales recycle air within their nasal passages, where vibrating phonic lips create high-frequency clicks.
During a prolonged dive, what does a whale's dive response do to its heart rate?
A slower heart rate helps conserve blood oxygen for a diving whale's brain and heart.
What mainly fuels a young humpback on the first long migration?
Humpback calves nurse for about 10 to 12 months and often double in size during their first year.
What does a bottlenose dolphin's signature whistle primarily signal?
Each bottlenose dolphin develops a distinctive signature whistle that can identify it to other dolphins.
Where do gray whales often scoop up the amphipods they eat?
Gray whales often roll onto one side and leave mud plumes and feeding pits as they suck prey from sediment.
A 2014 study documented a nearly 3,000-meter dive by which whale?
A satellite-linked tag recorded the 2,992-meter dive, which set a new mammalian depth record in that study.