Mammalogy Lab- Cetaceans: Suborder Mysticeti

Today in Mammalogy lab, we looked at Order Cetacea, which is in the Superorder Cetartiodactyla. Order Cetacea is one of the most highly specialized orders of mammals, as it contains whales and dolphins, which are completely aquatic. All cetaceans share distance features: they all have telescoping skull bones, which is the stretching and overlapping the skull bones that occurs when the nasals are at the top of the skull; they all have external nares on the top of the skull; they all have compressed cervical vertebrae; they all have dorso-ventrally flattened tails with horizontal flukes; and they all live in the Oceanic zone, which—broadly speaking—is all open oceans. The two suborders in Order Cetacea are Suborder Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales). The main difference in these two Suborders is that, unlike Odontoceti, Mysticeti have no teeth; instead they have a filter-feeding system called a baleen, which they use to filter plankton out of the water to eat. We looked at two families within S. Mysticeti, F. Balaenidae and F. Balaenopteridae. F. Balaenidae are the right whales and bowheads, and are distinguishable by their long baleen and stock bodies, their smooth throats, and their lack of a dorsal fin. F. Balaenopteridae on the other hand are the humpback whales, mink whales, rorquals etc. These have a short baleen, a long and streamlined body, grooves on their throats, and a small dorsal fin.