Evolution and Classification
This process explains why sharks and dolphins have similar body shapes despite distant ancestry.
Convergent evolution
Primary insulation in whales.
Blubber
Foundation of most marine food webs.
Phytoplankton
Marine mammal that uses rocks as tools.
Sea otter
The greatest long-term threat to many marine mammal populations caused by increasing global temperatures.
Climate change
Whales belong to this class of vertebrates.
Mammalia
Protein that stores oxygen in muscles.
Myoglobin
Loss of predators causing ecosystem imbalance.
Trophic cascade
This Arctic predator depends heavily on sea ice to hunt seals and is the only member of its family recognized as a marine mammal.
Polar bear
When toxins become more concentrated at higher trophic levels, the process is called this.
Biomagnification/Bioaccumulation
The closest living land relative of whales.
Hippo
Dark back and light belly coloration.
Countershading
The interconnected feeding relationships in ecosystems.
Food web
Whale famous for ambergris production.
Sperm whale
The movement of nutrients from deep water to the surface by rising currents is called this.
Upwelling
Finger bones inside whale flippers are this type of structure.
Homologous structures
Behavior of looking above the water surface vertically.
Spyhopping
The ecological role filled by sea otters in Pacific kelp forests.
Keystone species
Whales with baleen belong to this suborder.
Mysticeti
The scientific term for the variety of life within an ecosystem.
Biodiversity
Small hind limb remnants in whales are considered this type of structure.
Vestigial structures
Powerful tail movement that propels whales.
Tail flukes
The process by which whales recycle nutrients from deep water back to surface ecosystems through defecation.
Whale pump
Toothed whales belong to this suborder.
Odontoceti
The invisible pollutant produced by ships and industrial activity
Noise pollution