What is the difference between dolphin and whale?

What is the difference between dolphin and whale?

First thing’s first: all dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins. It may sound confusing, but all dolphins are simply smaller types of whales. The whale order (Cetacea) is divided into several different families, one of them being Delphinidae (this includes all oceanic dolphin species).

Do whales and dolphins have hair or fur?

All mammals have hair at some point in their life and dolphins are no exception. Dolphins have a few whiskers around their snout in the womb and when they are first born but they soon lose them. The bumps on humpback whales’ heads are hair follicles and some adult humpbacks still have hairs growing from them.

What type of skin does a dolphin have?

smooth
A dolphin’s skin is smooth and feels rubbery. The skin has no hair or sweat glands. The outer skin layer (epidermis) is about 15 to 20 times thicker than the epidermis of humans. Dolphin skin constantly flakes and peels as new skin cells replace old cells.

Are dolphin and porpoise the same?

Dolphins and porpoises differ in their faces, fins, and body shapes. Dolphins have longer noses, bigger mouths, more curved dorsal fins, and longer, leaner bodies than porpoises. The harbor porpoise has small pointed flippers and no beak. The dorsal fin is small and triangle-shaped.

Is the Orca a whale or a dolphin?

Killer whales are part of the dolphin family. There are three main types of killer whales, or ecotypes, in the North Pacific: Resident, Transient, and Offshore. In fact, they are the largest member of the Delphinidae, or dolphin family.

What is the outer covering of a whale?

Blubber covers the entire body of animals such as seals, whales, and walruses—except for their fins, flippers, and flukes. Blubber an important part of a marine mammal’s anatomy. It stores energy, insulates heat, and increases buoyancy.

What is whale blubber called?

Blubber is a thick layer of fat, also called adipose tissue, directly under the skin of all marine mammals.

What is whale outer covering?

What is a dolphins skin covering?

Explanation: The most external layer of the dolhpins’ skin, much like our own, is called epidermis. On the other hand, the dolphin’s hypodermis (the inner skin layer) is called blubber, showing a thick layer of fat which protects the dolphins from cold and predator attacks, and also helps with buoyancy.

How big is an orca compared to a dolphin?

Some orcas of exceptional size can be more than 30 feet in length and about 10 tons in weight. However, even the largest dolphin, the orca, dwarfs in size when compared to whales. As an example, the common minke whale, which is preyed on by the orca, grows to about 10 tons in weight.

What’s the difference between a cetacean and a whale?

And Cetacean is derived from the Greek word for whale, ketos. It may sound confusing, but all dolphins are simply smaller types of whales. The whale order (Cetacea) is divided into several different families, one of them being Delphinidae (this includes all oceanic dolphin species).

Which is bigger a blue whale or a dolphin?

The blue whale’s tongue alone is heavier than many adult dolphins, weighing as much as 3 tons. Whales of small size also exists an example of which being the dwarf sperm whale which is the smallest of all whales. Adult dwarf sperm whales are 9 feet in length and can weigh as much as 600 pounds.

What’s the difference between a sperm whale and a dolphin?

Difference in Intelligence. The brain size is one way of deducing the intelligence level of an animal and dolphins have some of the largest brains relative to their body size. The orca has the second-largest brain of any animal, with only the sperm whale having a larger brain.