Did You Know?
Some whales can be as long as a bus!
Types of Whales
There are two main types of whales. Some have teeth, and some have plates to eat.
Whale Sounds
Whales make sounds to talk. They can sing and call to each other.
What whale Does
Whales swim in the ocean.
They eat fish and krill.
Whales breathe air like us.
Some whales can dive deep.
Whales help keep the ocean healthy.
They can live for many years.
More About whale
Whales have been around for a long time. They used to live on land. Then, they went back to the sea. Now, they are great swimmers.
Whales help our ocean. They eat fish and keep the sea clean. They also give food to other sea life.
Some whales are very big. The blue whale is the biggest animal on Earth! Whales are cool and fun to learn about.
How Topics Connect
graph TD
A["Whales (Cetacea)"] --> B["Diverged from Hippopotamuses (54 million years ago)"]
A --> C["Last Common Ancestor (34 million years ago)"]
C --> D["Baleen Whales (Mysticeti)"]
C --> E["Toothed Whales (Odontoceti)"]
D --> F["Families: Balaenopteridae, Balaenidae, Cetotheriidae, Eschrichtiidae"]
E --> G["Families: Monodontidae, Physeteridae, Kogiidae, Ziphiidae"]
E --> H["Dolphins and Porpoises (not considered whales)"]
What Do These Words Mean?
Cetacea:A group of marine animals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
placental:Referring to mammals that give birth to live young that have developed inside a womb.
cladistic:A way of classifying living things based on their evolutionary relationships.
parvorders:Subcategories within a larger group of animals.
extant:Still living or existing today.
