LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Whales (Ecotourism): Toothed Whales
built 800 days ago
Toothed Whales (suborder Odontoceti), as the name implies, use their teeth to capture their food. The suborder ... includes the dolphins and porpoises. It is further divided into approximately ten families, consisting of seventy species, again depending on which scientific source you consult.
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The main difference between toothed and baleen whales is that baleen whales have no teeth at all but instead have baleen plates they use for collecting food. Although the baleen whales are the largest animals on earth, they usually feed on very small creatures.Their diet consists mainly of krill, plankton and small crustaceans and ... small shoaling fish. To catch these small animals, teeth are useless. The baleens form a large sieve-like structure with which the whales can filter them out of the water.
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Toothed whales are usually darker on the top, and lighter underneath. This makes the whale harder to see in the water, which helps them sneak up on, and catch their prey. When you look at the whale underneath its lighter coloring tends to blend with the sunlight shining on the water’s surface. If you look at the toothed whale from the top (or from the water’s surface) their dark back just blends into the darkness of the deep water below.
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Toothed whales use echolocation to sense objects. In echolocation, a high-pitched sound (usually clicks) is sent out by the whale. The sound bounces off the object and some returns to the whale. The whale interprets this returning echo to determine the object's shape, direction, distance, and texture.
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As in toothed whales, the nasal opening of baleen whales has moved to the top of the head. However, where toothed whales have a single, fused, blowhole, the baleen whales have two blowholes, just like most mammals have two nostrils. The blowholes can be closed by strong, muscular flaps, which open only when the whale takes a breath.
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After this activity you may want to ask yourself: What types of food do baleen and toothed whales typically eat? Which whale is the longest? Which whale is the smallest? What time of year do most whales migrate?
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Toothed Whales