Which Kind Of Animal Is Killer Whale

Mammals exhale air with lungs.

Gray whale breath

Mammals are "warm-blooded", they maintain a constant, high body temperature contained of their surround.
Every bit a rule, mammals conduct live young. (Two primitive mammals are exceptions to this dominion: the duckbilled platypus and the spiny anteater/echidna both lay eggs).
Mammals nurse their immature with milk.

Killer whale calf nursing

Mammals have hair, at least at some stage in their development. A whale's smooth peel is an accommodation for pond. A newborn calf often has a few sparse hairs around the rostrum that are lost inside the first days of life.

Society - Cetacea

Cetacea is a scientific order of large aquatic mammals that have forelimbs modified into flippers, a horizontally flattened tail, one or two nostrils at the top of the caput for animate, and no hind limbs. Cetaceans include all whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

The discussion "cetacean" is derived from the Greek word for whale, kētos.

Biochemical and genetic studies advise that even-toed ungulates, especially hippopotamuses (Family Hippopotamidae), are cetaceans' closest living terrestrial relatives. (Sheep, cows, pigs, and giraffes are as well examples of fifty-fifty-toed ungulates). These animals and whales probably share a mutual antecedent.

Some scientists suggest that since cetaceans genetically and morphologically fall within the artiodactyl clade, they should be included in the Social club Cetartiodactyla.

Living cetaceans are further divided into two suborders: the Odontoceti (toothed whales) and the Mysticeti (baleen whales).

Killer whale with mouth open Gray whale with mouth open

Suborder - Odontoceti

Odontoceti is a scientific suborder of whales characterized by having teeth and a single blowhole. The give-and-take "Odontoceti" comes from the Greek word for tooth, odontos.

Family unit - Delphinidae

Dolphins and their immediate kin are included in the scientific family Delphinidae. This family unit is represented past about 37 species, including bottlenose dolphins, airplane pilot whales, and false killer whales. The killer whale is the largest member of the dolphin family.

Dolphin close up

Genus, Species - Orcinus orca

The Latin name Orcinus translates as "belonging to Orcus". Orcus was a Roman god of the netherworld, and this genus proper name is likely a reference to the hunting prowess of the killer whale. In Latin, orca translates "large-bellied pot or jar," a reference to the shape of the whale's body.

Although currently just a single species of killer whale is accepted, multiple species or subspecies of killer whales may be recognized in the future. One recent genetic report suggests that the Antarctic type B and blazon C killer whales form a separate species and transient killer whales are also another killer whale species. (Run across Ecotype section for more data.)

A biological review squad of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries concluded that the resident, fish-eating killer whales of the North Pacific incorporate a distinct (as all the same united nations-named) subspecies.

Common Names

Killer whales gained their common proper noun considering some types prey on other whales. They were in one case called "whale killers" past sailors who witnessed their attacks on larger cetaceans. Over fourth dimension, the name was gradually switched to "killer whale".

Another mutual name for killer whales in Castilian is ballena asesina, which translates to "assassin whale". The German common name is schwertwal, or "sword whale" — a reference to their large dorsal fin. Native Americans call them by names including klasqo'kapix (Makah, Olympic Peninsula), ka-kow-wud (Quillayute, Olympic Peninsula), max'inux (Kwakiutl, northern Vancouver Island), qaqawun (Nootka, western Vancouver Island), and ska-ana (Haida, Queen Charlotte Islands). Other common names include blackfish and orca.

Killer whales attacking a blue whale

Killer Whale Ecotypes (Forms)

Scientists currently recognize at least 10 distinct killer whale ecotypes throughout the globe'due south oceans. All ecotypes are considered a unmarried species, merely many scientists feel that a taxonomic update is needed. These ecotypes have overlapping geographic ranges in certain areas but have slight genetic differences and distinct differences in size, habitat, colour pattern, dorsal fin shape, vocalizations, diet and hunting strategies.

In the Northern Hemisphere, there are 5 recognized ecotypes:

Type 1 and type 2 killer whales inhabit the eastern Due north Atlantic.
In the eastern N Pacific Body of water, observers have recognized that various groups of killer whales bear witness concrete and behavioral differences. They categorize pods of eastern North Pacific killer whales into iii ecotypes: "transient", "resident", and "offshore".
Researchers analyzed samples collected from 73 whales in the eastern North Pacific and found significant genetic differences among transient whales (also referred to equally "Bigg's killer whales" in laurels of early killer whale researcher Michael Biggs) and two split up groups of resident whales.
The offshore ecotype has been identified but not besides studied as the resident and transient ecotypes. It appears to be more closely related to the resident ecotype than to the transient ecotype.
A fourth potential killer whale ecotype in the Pacific inhabits the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP).

In that location are five recognized ecotypes in the Southern Hemisphere.

Antarctic blazon A killer whales.
Small type B — this ecotype may likewise be called "Gerlache killer whales" because they are regularly found around the Gerlache Strait off the western Antarctic Peninsula.
Large type B — this ecotype is sometimes referred to as "pack ice killer whales".
Blazon C — likewise referred to every bit "Ross Bounding main killer whales".
Blazon D — this ecotype may besides be chosen "Subantarctic killer whales".

Experts identify killer whale populations based on the whales' call patterns, behavior, body shape, and coloration. Current and future studies analyzing biochemical and chromosomal characteristics may assistance distinguish genetic relationships amongst pods and regional populations of killer whales.

Pod of several killer whales

Fossil Record

The primeval fossil whales have been estimated to be about 50 1000000 years old. Scientists theorize that the ancestors of whales were ancient (at present extinct) country mammals.

While the fossil record is poor in regard to modern cetaceans, well-nigh modern forms of both odontocetes and mysticetes appear in the fossil record five to vii 1000000 years ago. Recent mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analyses support the theory that cetaceans are distant cousins of even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls) and that hippopatamids are the closest living relative to cetaceans.

Wild hippos in a river

The remains of one such ancient hippopatamid discovered in Kashmir, India — Indohyus — is placed in the extinct family Raoellidae. Information technology's theorized that Indohyus took to the water as a ways of escaping predators, as opposed to finding new food sources, some 48 million years agone. The heart ear space of Indohyus features a thick bone roofing called an involucrum. Previously, the only other animals known to have an involucrum take been cetaceans.

In Italia, experts take uncovered Pliocene (two to v million years old) fossils that seem to be related to modern killer whales. The fossil skull of a whale that has been named Orcinus citoniensis had smaller teeth — and more of them — than modern killer whales. Scientists have identified large, fossil delphinid teeth, generally from the Pliocene, as those of an Orcinus species.

Two wild killer whales breaching