Dolphin Data

Pacific White Sided Dolphin

When talking about the mammals of the ocean, people usually say, "I like dolphins," or "I like sharks" or "I like whales." But actually, there are several types of dolphins, sharks and whales. So its necessary to do a little bit of research to learn about each type of cetacean (suh-tay-shun) or elasmobranch, (ee-lazmo-branch) where they live, and what their habits are.

A cetacean is "belonging to the Cetacea, an order of aquatic, chiefly marine mammals, including the whales and dolphins."

A shark, on the other hand, is an elasmobranch. "Belonging or pertaining to the Elasmobranchii, the subclass of cartilaginous fishes comprising the sharks and rays."

I'll talk about sharks and rays and what cartilage is, next weekend.

This weekend, it's about dolphins.

The Killer Whale is not really a whale, but a dolphin!

Dolphins are marine mammals. They are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin.

Six species of dolphins are called whales, even though they aren't whales:
Melon-headed Whale
Killer Whale (Orca)
Pygmy Killer Whale
False Killer Whale
Long-finned Pilot Whale
Short-finned Pilot Whale

There are two main types of dolphins - those that live in the ocean and those that live in rivers.

Below is a list of each type. Tomorrow, I'll share more information on dolphins.

TO DO:

Start a notebook for dolphins. At the top of each page, write down the name of each species of dolphin. Then, as you learn more about each dolphin, write it on the appropriate page. If you start studying dolphins at a young age, and learn about one dolphin each week, in a few years you'll be an expert on them!

Oceanic dolphins
Long-Beaked Common Dolphin
Short-Beaked Common Dolphin
Common Bottlenose Dolphin
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin
Northern Rightwhale Dolphin
Southern Rightwhale Dolphin
Tucuxi
Costero
Indo-Pacific Hump-backed Dolphin
Chinese White Dolphin
Atlantic Humpbacked Dolphin
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
Clymene Dolphin
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin
Spinner Dolphin
Striped Dolphin
Rough-Toothed Dolphin
Chilean Dolphin
Commerson's Dolphin
Heaviside's Dolphin
Hector's Dolphin
Risso's Dolphin
Fraser's Dolphin
Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin
Dusky Dolphin
Hourglass Dolphin
Pacific White-Sided Dolphin
Peale's Dolphin
White-Beaked Dolphin
Australian Snubfin Dolphin
Irrawaddy Dolphin

Chinese River Dolphin

River Dolphins
Ganges and Indus River Dolphin
Ganges River Dolphin (or Susu)
Indus River Dolphin (or Bhulan)
Amazon River Dolphin (or Boto)
Chinese River Dolphin (or Baiji),(possibly extinct, since December 2006)
La Plata Dolphin (or Franciscana)
Irrawaddy Dolphin (can be either oceanic or river)