Page created: 19951226 Last updated: 20030329

Page maintainer: Wesley R. Elsberry
Photos by Diane J. Blackwood,  Dr. William E. Evans, and Wesley R. Elsberry

Know an interesting cetacean link that isn't here? Suggest it to Wesley R. Elsberry.

I have listed below most species of cetaceans. Links will follow under each species. The listing follows taxonomic lines, rather than alphabetized common names or something similar. If you know a common name, but not a scientific name, try using your browser's search function for the common name. The taxonomy comes from both Peter Evans' "Biology of Whales and Dolphins" and Leatherwood and Reeves' "Handbook of Whales and Dolphins". There are a few discrepancies between the two. I hope I haven't confused the state of taxonomy too badly here.

• Order Cetacea (whales & dolphins)
• Suborder Mysticeti (baleen whales)

Baleen whales capture prey items by straining water through a series of baleen plates in the mouth, which act as filters to collect the food items.

• Family Balaenopteridae (rorquals)

Fast-swimming, streamlined, lunging feeders. These whales take in a large amount of water into an expanding buccal cavity, then expel the water through baleen to trap their prey.

• Genus Balaenoptera
• Species Balaenoptera acutorostrata ("Minke Whale")
• Species Balaenoptera borealis ("Sei Whale")
• Species Balaenoptera edeni ("Bryde's Whale")
• Species Balaenoptera musculus ("Blue Whale")
• Species Balaenoptera physalus ("Fin Whale")

• Genus Megaptera

• Species Megaptera novaeangliae ("Humpback whale")

• Family Balaenidae

Cruising, slow-moving, continuous filter feeders.

• Genus Balaena
• Species Balaena mysticetus ("Bowhead Whale")

• Genus Eubalaena

Called "right whales" because they were the "right" whales for whaling in the days of sailing vessels (they swam slower than the speed of the boats and they floated after death). The rorquals, by contrast, could outpace the unassisted sailing vessels or their oar-powered longboats.

• Species Eubalaena glacialis ("Northern Right Whale")
• Species Eubalaena australis ("Southern Right Whale")
• Genus Caperea
• Species Caperea marginata ("Pygmy Right Whale")
• Family Eschrichtidae
• Genus Eschrichtius
• Species Eschrichtius gibbosus ("Gray Whale")
• Suborder Odonticeti ("toothed whales")
• Family Platanistidae

Platanistidae Family
 

• Genus Platanista
• Species Platanista gangetica ("Ganges Susu River Dolphin")
• Species Platanista minor ("Indus Susu River Dolphin")
• Genus Inia
• Species Inia geoffrensis ("Boutu" or "Amazon River Dolphin")
• Genus Lipotes
• Species Lipotes vexillifer ("Beiji" or "Chinese Lake Dolphin")

The Beiji is highly endangered, with estimates of perhaps 100 animals left in the wild, and only 2 in captivity. The endangerment proceeds from habitat displacement, as the Yangtze River steadily becomes less livable for both prey items and predators.

• Genus Pontoporia
• Species Pontoporia blainvillei ("Franciscana" or "La Plata Dolphin")

• Family Ziphidae

Beaked whales are deep-water, deep-diving species only rarely (and usually briefly, if still living) encountered by humans. Most species are known from one or a few specimens, many of those washed ashore in less than perfect condition.  (One must attend a necropsy to fully appreciate how much less than perfect these specimens rapidly become.)

BEAKED
WHALES

 

• Genus Mesoplodon
• Species Mesoplodon bidens ("North Sea Beaked Whale" or "Sowerby's Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon layardii ("Strap-toothed Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon europaeus ("Antillean beaked Whale" or "Gervais' Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon mirus ("True's Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon grayi ("Camperdown Whale" or "Gray's Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon densirostris ("Blainville's Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon bowdoini ("Andrew's Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon pacificus ("Longman's Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon hectori ("Hector's Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon ginkgodens ("Ginkgo-toothed Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon stejnegeri ("Stejneger's Beaked Whale")
• Species Mesoplodon carlhubbsi ("Hubb's Beaked Whale")
• Genus Ziphius
• Species Ziphius cavirostris ("Cuvier's Beaked Whale")

• Genus Berardius

• Species Berardius bairdii ("Baird's Beaked Whale")
• Species Berardius arnuxii ("Arnoux's Beaked Whale")
• Genus Tasmacetus
• Species Tasmacetus shepherdi ("Tasman Beaked Whale")

• Genus Hyperoodon

• Species Hyperoodon ampullatus ("Northern Bottlenose Whale")
• Species Hyperoodon planifrons ("Southern Bottlenose Whale")
• Family Physeteridae
• Genus Physeter
• Species Physeter macrocephalus ("Sperm Whale")
• Genus Kogia
• Species Kogia breviceps ("Pygmy Sperm Whale")
• Species Kogia simus("Dwarf Sperm Whale")
• Family Monodontidae
• Genus Delphinapterous
• Species Delphinapterous leucas ("White whale" or "Beluga Whale")

Also known as "sea canaries" for their sound mimicking capabilities, the white whales are sometimes found in large groups in northern waters.

• Genus Monodon
• Species Monodon monoceros ("Narwhal")
• Family Stenidae
• Genus Steno
• Species Steno bredanensis ("Rough-Toothed Dolphin")
• Genus Stenella
• Species Stenella attenuata ("Pantropical Spotted Dolphin")
• Species Stenella dubia ("Spotted Dolphin")
• Species Stenella frontalis ("Atlantic Spotted Dolphin")
• Species Stenella plagiodon ("Spotted Dolphin")
• Species Stenella coeruleoalba ("Striped Dolphin")
• Species Stenella longirostris ("Long-snouted Spinner Dolphin")
• Species Stenella clymene ("Short-snouted Spinner" or "Clymene Dolphin")
• Genus Sotalia
• Species Sotalia fluviatilis ("Bouto Dolphin" or "Tucuxi")
• Species Sotalia guianensis ("Guiana River Dolphin")
• Species Sotalia chinensis ("Chinese White Dolphin")
• Species Sotalia borneensis ("Borneo White Dolphin")
• Species Sotalia centiginosa ("Speckled Dolphin"))
• Species Sotalia plumbea ("Plumbeous Dolphin")
• Species Sotalia teuzzi ("Cameroon Dolphin")
• Species Sotalia brasiliensis ("Rio de Janeiro Dolphin")
• Family Delphinidae

• Genus Delphinus

• Species Delphinus delphis ("Common Dolphin")
• Genus Grampus
• Species Grampus griseus ("Risso's Dolphin")
• Genus Tursiops
• Species Tursiops truncatus ("Bottlenose Dolphin")
• Species Tursiops gilli ("Bottlenose Dolphin")
• Genus Lagenorhynchus
• Species Lagenorhynchus obliquidens ("White-sided Dolphin")
• Species Lagenorhynchus albirostris ("White-beaked Dolphin")

• Species Lagenorhynchus
  obscuras ("Dusky Dolphin")

• Species Lagenorhynchus acutus ("White-sided Dolphin")
• Species Lagenorhynchus thicolea ("Falkland Island Dolphin")
• Species Lagenorhynchus cruciger ("Hour-glass Dolphin")
• Species Lagenorhynchus australis ("Peale's Dolphin")

• Genus Lagenodelphis

• Species Lagenodelphis hosei ("Sarawak Dolphin" or "Fraser's Dolphin")
• Genus Feresa
• Species Feresa attenuata ("Pygmy Killer Whale")
• Genus Cephalorhyncus

• Species Cephalorhyncus commersoni ("Commerson's Dolphin")

• Species Cephalorhyncus hectori ("Hector's Dolphin")
• Species Cephalorhyncus heavisidei ("Heaviside's Dolphin")
• Species Cephalorhyncus eutropia ("White-bellied Dolphin")
• Genus Orcinus
• Species Orcinus orca

  ("Orca" or "Killer Whale")

• Genus Pseudorca
• Species Pseudorca crassidens ("False killer Whale")
• Genus Orcaella
• Species Orcaella brevirostris ("Irrawaddy River Dolphin")
• Genus Globicephala
• Species Globicephala malaena ("Pilot Whale")
• Species Globicephala macrorhynchus ("Short-finned Pilot Whale")
• Genus Peponocephala
• Species Peponocephala electra ("Broad-beaked Dolphin")
• Genus Lissodelphis
• Species Lissodelphis peroni ("Southern Right Whale Dolphin")
• Species Lissodelphis borealis ("Northern Right Whale Dolphin")
• Family Phocoenidae ("porpoises")

PORPOISES

• Genus Phocaena
• Species Phocaena phocaena ("Harbor Porpoise")
• Species Phocaena dioptrica ("Spectacled Porpoise")
• Species Phocaena spinipinnis ("Black Porpoise")
• Species Phocaena sinus ("Cochito")
• Genus Neomeris
• Species Neomeris phocaenoides ("Black Finless Porpoise")
• Genus Phocaenoides
• Species Phocaenoides dalli ("Dall's Porpoise")

• Species Phocaenoides truei ("True's Porpoise")

• Genus Neophocaena
• Species Neophocaena

  phocaenoides ("Finless Porpoise")

• Suborder Archaeoceti

A convenient taxonomic pigeonhole for all fossil whales.
Whale Transitional Fossil Evidence

When Early Whales Left Land for Sea

• Genus Ambuloceti
• Genus Pakiceti