whale teeth. Where do whales have a reserve reservoir of air, how many teeth and what is the volume of their stomachs? Who are toothed whales

World of Animals Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

Do all whales have teeth?

Do all whales have teeth?

The whole huge family of whales is divided into two large groups: baleen whales and toothed. Baleen whales do not have real teeth, the most curious thing is that they replace their teeth with whiskers, and even those are not quite ordinary.

Sperm whale

The whalebone is two rows of horny plates located in the upper part of the mouth. They hang from the whale's upper jaw and form something like a sieve. Baleen whales open their mouths wide and draw in water. It is filtered through the horny plates, as a result, tiny crustaceans, molluscs, and fish remain there - the usual food of baleen whales. Closing its mouth, the whale pushes water out of itself, and eats its prey. To get enough, the whale has to work hard. Its stomach holds 2-3 tons of food. For just one meal, he needs a whole billion crustaceans or small fish.

Among baleen whales, blue whales are considered the largest. They are also the largest animals currently living on Earth. Their length can reach 33 meters, and weight - 150 tons. Even a newborn blue whale is 5–7 meters long, and for feeding alone it needs 100 liters of milk.

The family of baleen whales consists of three groups: right whales, gray whales with two or three folds on the neck, and minke whales with longitudinal folds on the belly. Blue whales belong to the group of minke whales.

Toothed whales are no less interesting than baleen whales. The largest of them is the sperm whale. It reaches 20 meters in length, has very large lungs, which helps it to take in a lot of air and dive to great depths, up to 300-500, or even 1000 meters. And under water, he can stay longer than all other whales: an hour or two.

In addition, sperm whales have an additional reservoir in which they store air. This is their right nostril, which has become overgrown and turned into a huge air bag.

Among the toothed whales, the killer whale also stands out. It is also called the killer whale. This is the only one of all whales that does not feed on crustaceans and mollusks, but on large warm-blooded marine animals. Killer whales are relatively small in size - 5-7 meters in length, but they have sharp cone-shaped and very strong teeth, with which they easily tear apart their prey. It happens that killer whales even attack their relatives - baleen whales, striving to snatch their fat soft tongue from these harmless animals. So even a huge blue whale, which is 4-5 times larger than killer whales, tries to stay away from them. It happens that, fleeing from killer whales, these giants are washed ashore.

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Anatomy

Most toothed whales are significantly smaller than baleen (toothless) whales. Only the sperm whale can compare with them in size. The remaining species are considered small or medium whales. Another difference is that toothed whales have only one nostril.

Teeth at certain types developed in varying degrees. Most have quite a few of them, for example, about a hundred, like some dolphins. In the narwhal, however, the dental system has only two incisors, of which the left one develops into a tusk that protrudes from the jaw into horizontal direction. In young narwhals, in addition to incisors, two small front teeth and one molar appear in the upper jaw, but over time they fall out. There are never any teeth on the lower jaw.

Nearly toothless male beaked whales have very exotic teeth.

Behavior

Most toothed whales are excellent and fast swimmers. Smaller species sometimes float on the waves and like to accompany ships. Especially often in this role there are dolphins, known for their acrobatic jumps. In toothed whales big role sounds are played for communication. In addition to numerous whistles that serve for communication between individuals, toothed whales make sounds of ultrasonic frequency, which serve them as an echo sounder. When hunting, this sixth sense is of particular importance to them. Most toothed whales live in groups of two or three to several dozen animals. These groups, in turn, can join other groups for a time and create herds of several thousand whales. Toothed whales are capable of complex social relations and achievements. When hunting for fish schools, they show highly developed cooperation. In captivity, some species show a remarkable ability and willingness to learn, which is why many zoologists consider them one of the most intelligent mammals.

Classification

Toothed whales are divided into the following families:

  • Gangetic dolphins ( Platanistidae Grey, 1846)
  • Dolphin ( Delphinidae Grey, 1821)
  • Narwhal ( Monodontidae Grey, 1821)
  • sperm whales ( Physeteridae Grey, 1821)
  • Inii ( Iniidae Grey, 1846)
  • Pygmy sperm whales ( Kogiidae Gill, 1871)
  • Beaked ( Ziphiidae Grey, 1850)
  • Laplata dolphins ( Pontoporiidae Grey, 1870)
  • Porpoises ( Phocoenidae Grey, 1825)
  • river dolphins ( Lipotidae Grey, 1846)

There are several schemes according to which families of toothed whales are combined into superfamilies. It is relatively certain that dolphins, porpoises and narwhals are closely related. Sometimes they are classified as a superfamily of dolphins. However, the association of Laplata, lake, Gangetic dolphins and ini in the superfamily of river dolphins is incorrect. Although representatives of all these families live in fresh waters, they originated and developed independently of each other. Sperm whales and beaked whales are very ancient families of toothed whales and are not closely related to any other family.

Toothed whales and man

For a long time there was an intensive fishery for the sperm whale. To date, only a few small whales, such as pilot whales, are allowed to be hunted, but most whales are threatened by fishing nets where they become entangled and die, unable to float up and take a breath. Especially when catching tuna in nets, thousands of dolphins die.

Small whales - dolphins, killer whales or beluga whales - are used in tourist attractions in dolphinariums and oceanariums, but they require large areas for their maintenance.

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Notes

Links

  • Superfamily in the World Register marine species (World Register of Marine Species) (English)

An excerpt characterizing Toothed whales

Rostov stopped and, clenching his fists, suddenly moved menacingly towards Alpatych.
– Decision? What's the solution? Old bastard! he shouted at him. - What were you watching? BUT? The men are rioting, and you can't handle it? You yourself are a traitor. I know you, I'll skin everyone... - And, as if afraid to waste his ardor in vain, he left Alpatych and quickly went forward. Alpatych, suppressing the feeling of insult, kept up with Rostov with a floating step and continued to tell him his thoughts. He said that the peasants were stagnant, that at the present moment it was imprudent to fight them without having a military team, that it would not be better to send for a team first.
“I will give them a military command ... I will oppose them,” Nikolai said senselessly, choking on unreasonable animal malice and the need to vent this anger. Without realizing what he would do, unconsciously, with a quick, decisive step, he moved towards the crowd. And the closer he moved to her, the more Alpatych felt that his imprudent act could produce good results. The peasants of the crowd felt the same way, looking at his quick and firm gait and his determined, frowning face.
After the hussars entered the village and Rostov went to the princess, confusion and discord occurred in the crowd. Some peasants began to say that these newcomers were Russians and no matter how offended they were by not letting the young lady out. Drone was of the same opinion; but as soon as he expressed it, Karp and other peasants attacked the former headman.
- How many years have you eaten the world? Karp shouted at him. - You don't care! You will dig a little egg, take it away, what do you want, ruin our houses, or not?
- It is said that there should be order, no one should go from the houses, so as not to take out a blue gunpowder - that's it! shouted another.
“There was a queue for your son, and you must have felt sorry for your baldness,” the little old man suddenly spoke quickly, attacking Dron, “but he shaved my Vanka. Oh, let's die!
- Then we will die!
“I am not a refuser from the world,” said Dron.
- That’s not a refuser, he has grown a belly! ..
Two long men were talking. As soon as Rostov, accompanied by Ilyin, Lavrushka and Alpatych, approached the crowd, Karp, putting his fingers behind his sash, smiling slightly, stepped forward. The drone, on the contrary, went into the back rows, and the crowd moved closer.
- Hey! who is your elder here? - shouted Rostov, quickly approaching the crowd.
- Is that the elder? What do you want? .. – asked Karp. But before he had time to finish, his hat fell off him and his head jerked to one side from a strong blow.
- Hats off, traitors! Rostov's full-blooded voice shouted. - Where is the elder? he shouted in a furious voice.
“The headman, the headman is calling ... Dron Zakharych, you,” hurriedly submissive voices were heard somewhere, and hats began to be removed from their heads.
“We can’t rebel, we observe the rules,” said Karp, and at the same moment several voices from behind suddenly began to speak:
- As the old men murmured, there are a lot of you bosses ...
- Talk? .. Riot! .. Robbers! Traitors! Rostov yelled senselessly, in a voice not his own, grabbing Karp by Yurot. - Knit him, knit him! he shouted, although there was no one to knit him, except for Lavrushka and Alpatych.
Lavrushka, however, ran up to Karp and grabbed him by the arms from behind.
- Will you order ours from under the mountain to call? he shouted.
Alpatych turned to the peasants, calling two by name to knit Karp. The men obediently left the crowd and began to unbelt.
- Where is the elder? shouted Rostov.
Drone, with a frown and pale face, stepped out of the crowd.
- Are you an elder? Knit, Lavrushka! - shouted Rostov, as if this order could not meet obstacles. And indeed, two more peasants began to knit Dron, who, as if helping them, took off his kushan and gave it to them.
- And you all listen to me, - Rostov turned to the peasants: - Now the march to the houses, and so that I don’t hear your voice.
“Well, we didn’t make any offense. We are just being stupid. They’ve only done nonsense… I told you it was disorder,” voices were heard reproaching each other.
“So I told you,” Alpatych said, coming into his own. - It's not good, guys!
“Our stupidity, Yakov Alpatych,” voices answered, and the crowd immediately began to disperse and scatter around the village.
The bound two peasants were taken to the manor's yard. Two drunk men followed them.
- Oh, I'll look at you! - said one of them, referring to Karp.
“Is it possible to speak to gentlemen like that?” What did you think?

To the question: "How many teeth does a whale have?" - it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer. There are whales that do not have teeth at all, but have teeth, but their number is different for each species: from one to 250 ...

baleen whales

This suborder of cetaceans includes the largest mammal on our planet - blue whale. The largest, with a length of 33 meters, had a weight of 30 tons. How do the blue whale and its relatives, baleen whales, manage without teeth?

  1. From the upper jaw of these whales hangs a whalebone - long rows of plates of horny substance.
  2. A whalebone is not an ornament, but a filtering apparatus.
  3. Baleen whales feed on krill and other planktonic animals, filtering huge masses of water. Their throat is very small and they can only swallow small animals.
  4. In order to scoop up more water at a time, there are folds on their throats that stretch when filling their mouths.
  5. Thus, during the day, animals absorb several tons of food.

toothed whales

These whales have up to 250 teeth. All teeth are the same - they look like small sharp pegs. And they eat, unlike their mustachioed relatives, fish and squid. Toothed whales are very different.

  1. The largest is the sperm whale. Females can be 18 meters long. Hunting for deep-sea squids, they can dive to a depth of 1 km and stay under water for more than an hour,
  2. The fastest swimming representatives of the suborder are dolphins. While moving, they can jump out of the water, while flying about 10 meters. They live and hunt in packs in which matriarchy reigns.
  3. The killer whale feeds on seals, penguins, smaller whales than it differs from other cetaceans. Like all dolphins, orcas hunt together. Scientists note that their hunting methods resemble the behavior of wolves.
  4. The narwhal is a dolphin whose females have no teeth at all, while the males only erupt one in the upper jaw. As the male matures, the tooth turns into a 3-meter tusk, located horizontally. At the same time, it is helically twisted along its entire length. The purpose of this tooth is still controversial among scientists.

Toothed whales include sperm whales, dolphins and killer whales. Some of the toothed whales have been fairly well studied, while there is very little information about other species.

They descended from four-legged mammals living along the banks of large rivers about 50 million years ago. Gradually they began to spend more time in the water. Their tail turned into a fin, and the nostrils moved to the crown.

The hind legs disappeared, and the front paws were transformed into fins.

Classification of toothed whales

To date, there are approximately 67 species of toothed whales, which are members of the following families: dolphins, sperm whales, Ganges dolphins, Laplat dolphins, porpoises, narwhals, river dolphins, pygmy sperm whales, ini and beaked dolphins.

The largest are, they reach a length of up to 20 meters, and the smallest is the Heaviside dolphin, whose body length does not exceed 130 centimeters. Among all toothed whales, sperm whales and river dolphins are the least studied.

The sperm whale is one of the largest representatives of toothed whales.

Five species of river dolphins live in large Asian and South American rivers. hallmark of these dolphins is a beak-shaped jaw with sharp teeth. A small representative of river dolphins is the Laplata dolphin, not exceeding 1.8 meters in length.

Beluga whales and narwhals live in the cold seas of the Arctic. There are 2 types of grinds: black and regular grinds.

Movement of toothed whales

Whales swim mainly by making vertical movements with their caudal fins, and thanks to their pectoral fins, they change direction and maintain balance. Dolphins are the fastest swimmers. Sperm whales can swim at a speed of about 37 kilometers per hour, killer whales at a speed of 55 kilometers per hour, and swift ones at 70 kilometers per hour.


There are several factors that make toothed whales swim at such high speeds.

Their skin is perfectly smooth, which reduces resistance and makes it possible to easily move through the water column. Thin grooves run along the body from head to tail, which also reduce friction, as water flows around the body of the whales. The skin of toothed whales is spongy, so it adapts elastically to water pressure. Others believe that the top layer of cells in toothed whales is constantly growing, and as it wears away, it forms a "lubrication" that reduces water friction.

Most toothed whales have excellent vision, which helps them see well both underwater and above water, but, nevertheless, they navigate mainly due to echolocation. Whales send out a series of sound signals and perceive their reflection.


Thanks to this, they find prey, determine its size, speed of movement, and can make an unmistakable attack. In addition, echolocation prevents whales from colliding with underwater obstacles, which is actively used by river dolphins that live in muddy waters.

As for the vision of river dolphins, in most species it is rudimentary.

A distinctive feature of sperm whales is the presence in the head of a large fat pad, inside of which is a waxy substance called spermaceti. The mass of this substance reaches several tons. At low temperatures, spermaceti solidifies and its volume becomes smaller. It is not exactly clear why sperm whales need spermaceti.


Perhaps it amplifies the directed and emitted sounds. Perhaps it is very important when diving an animal to a depth. When a sperm whale dives to great depths and stays there for about an hour, oxygen is retained in the spermaceti, protecting the sperm whale from developing decompression sickness. And there is also a version that this substance controls the process of immersion of the sperm whale. When spermaceti warms up, the animal rises, and when it cools down, the sperm whale sinks.

Diet of toothed whales

All toothed whales are excellent hunters. Their diet usually consists of cephalopods and fish.

Predatory killer whales can reach 10 meters in length. They are the only cetaceans that prey on warm-blooded marine animals such as seals and sea lions. They hunt in packs. They attack not only fish, mollusks, turtles, penguins, but also other cetaceans, for example, blue whales.


- smart hunters, they can turn over ice floes with penguins to throw them into the water and catch them in the confusion. When hunting for sea lions in the waters of southern Argentina, killer whales use tides. They are even capable of chasing prey in shallow water.

Dolphins also often hunt in packs. They surround schools of fish and raise them to the surface, and when individual individuals try to hide in the depths, dolphins catch and eat them.

Reproduction of toothed whales

Toothed whales live in herds. Mating in females and males, as a rule, occurs with several partners. For example, in a herd of sperm whales, the main male fertilizes several females. Male toothed whales often fight fiercely among themselves, while inflicting serious injuries on rivals with their sharp teeth.

The gestation period, depending on the species of cetaceans, can last 10-16 months.

All females bring only one baby. Cubs are born tail first. Often they are quite large, the length of the body of a newborn can be a third of the length of the mother's body.

Cetaceans do not have lips, so babies cannot suckle milk. The nipple emerges from the skin fold where it normally hides, and the milk is injected directly into the baby's mouth. The milk of all cetaceans has a very high percentage of fat, thanks to which the cubs grow almost instantly. Most toothed whales feed their offspring with milk for 4 months, but pilot whales are an exception, they feed their young for several years.

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