What is the body plan of a cetaceans?

1. What is the body structure of a whale?
2. How do Cetacea breathe?
3. What adaptations do cetaceans have?
4. What is the function of whale structure?
5. How can we tell cetaceans are mammals?
6. How do cetaceans sleep?
7. What characteristic is unique to cetacean creatures?
8. What type of filtering structure do Mysticetes possess?
9. What ecosystems do cetaceans live in?
10. What are some characteristics of the respiratory system of cetaceans that are adaptations to diving?
11. What are some physical adaptations that help cetaceans survive in water?
12. What are cetaceans for kids?
13. What are the three families of pinnipeds?
14. Which of the following are cetaceans?

What is the body structure of a whale?

Whales have torpedo-shaped bodies with non-flexible necks, limbs modified into flippers, non-existent external ear flaps, a large tail fin, and flat heads (with the exception of monodontids and ziphiids).

How do Cetacea breathe?

Whales and dolphins are mammals and breathe air into their lungs, just like we do. They cannot breathe underwater like fish can as they do not have gills. They breathe through nostrils, called a blowhole, located right on top of their heads.

What adaptations do cetaceans have?

The most noticeable adaptation of cetaceans to life in the water is their locomotive system. Because cetaceans descended from mammals that moved their limbs in a vertical plane rather than in a horizontal plane, they use vertical strokes when they swim, instead of horizontal strokes like a crocodile or fish.

What is the function of whale structure?

Whales have adaptations for rapid, deep diving and long submersion; e.g., broad-bore Eustachian tubes, no pinnae, and no air-feed external canals, that impact sound reception. In odontocetes, two soft tissue channels conduct sound to the ear. In mysticetes, bone and soft tissue conduction are likely.

How can we tell cetaceans are mammals?

Cetaceans (order Cetacea) are an entirely aquatic order of mammals comprising the whales, the dolphins, and the porpoises. The ancient Greeks recognized that cetaceans breathe air, give birth to live young, produce milk, and have hair—all features of mammals.

How do cetaceans sleep?

So how can they sleep and not drown? Observations of bottlenose dolphins in aquariums and zoos, and of whales and dolphins in the wild, show two basic methods of sleeping: they either rest quietly in the water, vertically or horizontally, or sleep while swimming slowly next to another animal.

What characteristic is unique to cetacean creatures?

Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel themselves through the water with powerful up-and-down movement of their tail which ends in a paddle-like fluke, using their flipper-shaped forelimbs to maneuver.

What type of filtering structure do Mysticetes possess?

Specialised feeding adaptations are particularly distinctive in mysticetes: they lack teeth, but use baleen to filter food (mainly zooplankton) from the water. Baleen plates hang from the upper jaw in a uniquely constructed skull.

What ecosystems do cetaceans live in?

Whales and dolphins live and feed in almost every part of the marine environ- ment including the great rivers and their estuaries (Platanistidae), continen- tal shelves (Mysticeti, Phocoenidae), deep ocean canyons (Physetertdae, Ziphiidae), tropical oceans (Delphinidae), and even amidst ice in the Arctic (Monodontidae, ...

What are some characteristics of the respiratory system of cetaceans that are adaptations to diving?

Deep Diving

They fill their lungs and exchange 90% of their air in each breath, have high blood volume, and their blood chemistry allows greater oxygen retention (the high red blood cell count and increased myoglobin make their muscle tissue and blood dark red).

What are some physical adaptations that help cetaceans survive in water?

Both cetaceans and sirenians are well adapted to swimming through millions of years of evolution by natural selection. They possess smooth streamlined bodies with very little hair and flipper-shaped fore limbs (Fig. 6.18 B).

What are cetaceans for kids?

Cetaceans are the mammals most fully adapted to aquatic life. Their body is fusiform (spindle-shaped). The forelimbs are modified into flippers. The tiny hindlimbs are vestigial, they do not attach to the backbone and are hidden within the body.

What are the three families of pinnipeds?

Pinnipeds are separated into three groups: earless seals, eared seals and walruses. Sometimes referred to as earless seals or true seals, marine mammals in the phocid family can be easily identified by looking at their ears and flippers.

Which of the following are cetaceans?

Cetacea is an infraorder that comprises the 94 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. It is divided into toothed whales (Odontoceti) and baleen whales (Mysticeti), which diverged from each other some time in the Eocene 26 to 17 million years ago (mya).