whale near boat | i ' m blue whale
whale near boat | i ' m blue whale Whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. They are an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins and porpoises. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla with even-toed ungulates and their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, having diverged about 40 mil years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have split separately around 34 million yrs ago. The whales comprise 8 extant families: Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Balaenidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy proper whale), Eschrichtiidae (the dull whale), Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals), Physeteridae (the semen whale), Kogiidae (the little and pygmy sperm whale), and Ziphiidae (the beaked whales). Whales are creatures of the open ocean; t...