What is a whale? Sure, I know, whales are whales…but did you know that all dolphins and porpoises are whales too? Well its true, they are toothed whales just like the great sperm whale made famous by Moby Dick. As a matter of fact, the sperm whale is the only toothed whale that is considered a great whale because of its immense size. All of the other great whales like the blue, fin, humpback, gray, and right whale do not even have teeth. Instead they have baleen plates which are used to strain their food which consists of plankton, krill, small schooling fish, and cocopods. Its hard to imagine that the largest creatures on earth eat some of the smallest but its true and they can eat as much as couple of tons per day! That's over 4,000 pounds of food per day!

Well now that you know that dolphins, porpoises and whales are all whales, did you know that orcas, more commonly known as killer whales, like Willy, are dolphins too? Now I know what your thinking, if all whales are whales, and if dolphins and porpoises are whales, then maybe all whales are dolphins too. Right? Wrong! But orcas are dolphins. As a matter of fact, they are the largest of the dolphin species growing to lengths in excess of 30 feet and next to man are the most widely distributed mammal on Earth.

In all, there are over 80 species of whales living in our world today which make up the classification order known as Cetacea. Cetacea contains two suborders, Mysticeti and Odontoceti. The baleen whales, those that do not have teeth but instead have baleen plates, are members of the Mysticeti suborder, while the toothed whales like the sperm whale, along with all the dolphins and porpoises, make up the suborder Odontoceti. Altogether, the two suborders contain over eighty known species, separated into thirteen different families. In each family are a number of species, each classified further into sub-families, or genera, of which there are 40.
Mysticeti contains four families: Balaenoptidae, Balaenidae, Neobalaenidae and Eschrichtiidae. Between them, the families contain six genera and eleven species. Odontoceti contains nine families: Physeteridae, Kogiidae, Delphinidae, Platanistidae, Iniidae, Pontoporiidae, Phocoenidae, Monodontidae, and Ziphiidae. Between them, the families contain thirty-six genera and seventy species.

I know this all sounds complicated, and the academians want it that way, but it really isn't as bad as it sounds. Take a look for yourself.


WHALES (Order Cetacea)

Baleen Whales (Suborder Mysticeti)

Rorqual Whales (Family Balaenopteridae)

Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis)
Bryde's Whale (Balaenoptera edeni)
Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)
Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)

Taken under NMFS Permit # 883
Right Whales
(Family Balaenidae & Neobalaenidae)

Northern Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis)
Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena australis)
Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus)
Pygmy Right Whale (Caperea marginata)

Gray Whales (Family Eschrichtiidae)
Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus)

Toothed Whales
(Suborder Odontoceti)

Sperm Whales
(Family Physeteridae & Kogiidae )

Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus)
Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps)
Dwarf Sperm Whale (Kogia simus)

Dolphins and Porpoises (Family Delphinidae)

Large Oceanic Dolphins (Blackfish)

Orca (Killer Whale) (Orcinus orca)
False Killer Whale (Pseudorca crassidens)
Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata)
Melon-Headed Whale (Peponocephala electra)
Long-Finned Pilot Whale (Globicephala melas)
Short-Finned Pilot Whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus)

Oceanic Dolphins

Atlantic Humpbacked Dolphin (Sousa teuszii)
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (Stenella frontalis)
Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus)
Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
Chilean Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus eutropia)
Clymene Dolphin (Stenella clymene)
Commerson's Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii)
Dusky Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obscurus)
Fraser's Dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei)
Heaviside's Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus heavisidii)
Hector's Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori)
Hourglass Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus cruciger)
Indo-Pacific Humpbacked Dolphin (Sousa chinensis; Sousa plumbea)
Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris)
Long-Beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus capensis)
Northern Rightwhale Dolphin (Lissodelphis borealis)
Pacific White-Sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens)
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin (Stenella attenuata)
Peale's Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus australis)
Risso's Dolphin (Grampus griseus)
Rough-Toothed Dolphin (Steno bredanensis)
Short-Beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis)
Southern Rightwhale Dolphin (Lissiodelphis peronii)
Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris)
Striped Dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba)
Tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis)
White-Beaked Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris)

River Dolphins (Family Platanistoidae, Iniidae, & Pontoporiidae)

Amazon River Dolphin (Boto) (Inia geoffrensis)
Chinese River Dolphin (Baiji) (Lipotes vexillifer)
Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica)
Indus River Dolphin (Platanista minor)
La Plata River Dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei)

Porpoises (Family Phocoenidae)

Burmeister's Porpoise (Phocoena spinnipinnis)
Dall's Porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli)
Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides)
Harbour Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
Spectacled Porpoise (Australophocaena dioptrica)
Vaquita (Phocoena sinus)

White Whales (Family Monodontidae)

Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas)
Narwhal (Monodon monocerus)

Beaked Whales (Family Ziphiidae)

Andrews' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bowdoini)
Arnoux's Beaked Whale (Beradius arnuxii)
Baird's Beaked Whale (Beradius bairdii)
Bahamonde's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bahamondi)
Blainville's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris)
Cuvier's Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris)
Gervais' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon europaeus)
Ginkgo-Toothed Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens)
Gray's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon grayi)
Hector's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon hectori)
Hubbs' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon carlhubbsi)
Lesser Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon peruvianus)
Longman's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon pacificus)
Northern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus)
Shepherd's Beaked Whale (Tasmacetus sherpherdi)
Southern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon planifrons)
Sowerby's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bidens)
Stejneger's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon stejnegeri)
Straptoothed Whale (Mesoplodon layardii)
True's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon mirus)
Unidentified Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon 'species A')

So that's a quick look at the order of whales known as Cetacea.

For more detailed information on each species, please visit the Cetacea web site which is listed on our links page.