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Because Orcas are not whales, they are dolphins.
by Jaruzel 6y ago
Because Orcas are not whales, they are dolphins.
- JackFr 6y agoFrom Wikipedia: “The killer whale or orca is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. The toothed whales are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales.“ So, yes, in the sense that sperm whales and porpoises are also dolphins, it too is a dolphin. but that’s not typically how we use the word dolphin.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoI think it's normal to consider that porpoises are dolphins. Sperm whales, not so much.
- dwaltrip 6y agoI’m not sure if this settles the debate, but sperm whales and porpoises are in a different (super?) family than dolphins and killer whales. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physeteroidea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physeteroidea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinoidea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinoidea
- arunix 6y ago> toothed whales are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth The article for whales [1] linked from that sentence says "They are an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins and porpoises." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale
- Talanes 6y agoI mean, when I was presented the "Orcas aren't actually whales" factoid as a kid, it was to group them specifically with Dolphins and Porpoises.
- oh_sigh 6y agoOrcas are both dolphins and whales, in the similar manner that dogs are canids and carnivoras.