As one of the most distinctive and specialized orders of mammals, Cetaceans include the largest animal that has ever lived which is the blue whale, as well as the dolphins including blind river dolphins and singing humpback whales. A cetacean is another term for a grouping of dolphins, porpoises and whales that can be either living or extinct. Within the cetacean groupings the modern whales can be divided into two subgroups.
This includes the baleen whales that have no teeth and the Odontocetes, or teethed whales. Most Odontocetes are referred to as porpoises or dolphins that we commonly know and some that we have never heard of. There are nearly 80 living species in total.
Most of the cetacean species is endangered right now, but studies have shown that the population is steadily increasing and the outlook is fairly good for many of these animals. Most of the cetaceans are marine mammals, but there are some dolphin species that can be found in the Yangtze, Indus, Ganges, Parana and Amazon rivers. Here is the complete list of cetaceans:
Odontoceti or Toothed Whales
- Sperm whale
- Pygmy sperm whale
- Dwarf sperm whale
- Andrew’s beaked whale
- Amoux’s beaked whale
- Baird’s beaked whale
- Blainville’s beaked whale
- Cuvier’s beaked whale
- Gervais’ beaked whale
- Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale
- Gray’s beaked whale
- Hector’s beaked whale
- Hubb’s beaked whale
- Longman’s beaked whale
- Northern bottlenose whale
- Southern bottlenose whale
- Sowerby’s beaked whale
- Straptoothed whale
- Stejneger’s beaked whale
- Tasman beaked whale
- True’s beaked whale
- Atlantic humpbacked dolphin
- Atlantic spotted dolphin
- Atlantic white sided dolphin
- Black dolphin
- Bottlenose dolphin
- Clymene dolphin
- Commerson’s dolphin
- Common dolphin
- Dusky dolphin
- False killer whale
- Fraser’s dolphin
- Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin
- Heaviside’s dolphin
- Hector’s dolphin
- Hourglass dolphin
- Irrawaddy dolphin
- Killer whale (Orca)
- Long-finned pilot whale
- Melon-headed whale
- Northern right whale dolphin
- Peale’s dolphin
- Pygmy killer whale
- Risso’s dolphin
- Rough-toothed dolphin
- Short-finned pilot whale
- Southern right whale dolphin
- Spinner dolphin
- Spotted dolphin
- Striped dolphin
- Tucuxi
- White beaked dolphin
- Beluga whale
- Narwhal
- Amazon river dolphin
- Chinese river dolphin
- Franciscana
- Ganges river dolphin
- Indus river dolphin
- Yangtze river dolphin
- La Plata dolphin
- Burrmeister’s porpoise
- Cochito
- Dall’s porpoise
- Finless porpoise
- Harbour porpoise
- Spectacled porpoise
Baleen Whales
- Gray whale
- Blue whale
- Bryde’s whale
- Fin whale
- Minke whale
- Sei whale
- Humpback whale
- Bowhead whale
- Northern right whale
- Southern right whale
- Pygmy right whale
