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Cetacea Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Infraclass: Eutheria Superorder: Laurasiatheria Order: Cetacea The order Cetacea contains ninety species, all marine except for five species of freshwater dolphins. The order is divided into two suborders, Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales, which includes dolphins and porpoises). The cetacean is a mammal, it needs to breathe air. Because of this, it needs to come to the water's surface to exhale its carbon dioxide and inhale a fresh supply of oxygen. As it dives, a muscular action closes the blowholes (nostrils), which remain closed until the cetacean next breaks the surface. When it does, the muscles open the blowholes and warm air is exhaled. Cetaceans' blowholes have evolved to a position on top of the head, allowing more time to expel stale air and inhale fresh air. When the stale air, warmed from the lungs, is exhaled, it condenses as it meets the cold air outside. As with a terrestrial mammal breathing out on a cold day, a small cloud of 'steam' appears. This is called the 'blow' or 'spout' and is different in terms of shape, angle and height, for each cetacean species. Cetaceans can be identified at a distance, using this characteristic, by experienced whalers or whale-watchers. When it comes to food and feeding, cetaceans can be separated into two distinct groups. The toothed whales, Odontoceti, like the sperm whales, beluga whales, and the dolphins and porpoises, usually have lots of teeth that they use for catching fish, squid or other marine life. They do not chew their food, but swallow it whole. In the cases where they catch large prey, as when the dolphin Orca (Orcinus orca) catch a seal, they tear chunks off it that in turn are swallowed whole. The baleen whales or Mysticeti do not have teeth. Instead they have plates made of keratin (the same substance as human fingernails) which hang down from the upper jaw. These plates act like a giant filter, straining small animals (such as krill and fish) from the seawater. Cetaceans included in this group include the Blue Whale, the Humpback Whale, the Bowhead Whale and the Minke Whale. Not all Mysticeti feed on plankton: the larger whales tend to eat small shoaling fish, such as herrings and sardine, called micronecton. One species of Mysticeti, the Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus), is a benthic feeder, primarily eating sea floor crustaceans. As mammals, cetaceans have characteristics that are common to all mammals: They are warm-blooded, breathe in air through their lungs, bear their young alive and suckle them on their own milk, and have hair, although very little of it. Source: Wikipedia