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toothed whale
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Also known as: Odontoceti
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bottlenose dolphin The common
toc Table of Contents bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is
found worldwide in warm and temperate…
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toothed whale, (suborder Odontoceti), any of the odontocete cetaceans,
including the oceanic dolphins, river dolphins, porpoises, pilot whales, beaked
Related Topics: dolphin • river
whales, and bottlenose whales, as well as the killer whale, sperm whale, narwhal,
dolphin • beaked whale • porpoise •
and beluga whale. Simocetus
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The ancestors of present-day odontocetes probably evolved during the Oligocene
Epoch (33.7 million to 23.8 million years ago) from a group of more ancient
whales called archaeocetes, which also had teeth, as did some early baleen
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whales. Some odontocetes have only vestigial teeth buried in their jawbones;
others have teeth that are erupted, in numbers varying from 1 in the narwhal
to more than 240 in the franciscana, or La Plata river dolphin. The teeth are
simple cones that function only for grasping, not chewing. The teeth are also
used in aggressive behaviour among members of the same species to seize or
shake an opponent. killer whale A pod of killer whales
(Orcinus orca)—a species with a patchy
distribution in all oceans—swimming at…
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Odontoceti is a term derived from the Greek odontos (“tooth”) and ketos
(“whale”).
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echolocation
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echolocation, a physiological process for locating distant or invisible objects
Key People: Donald Redfield Griffin
(such as prey) by means of sound waves reflected back to the emitter (such as a
Related Topics: bat • senses • shrew •
bat) by the objects. Echolocation is used for orientation, obstacle avoidance, food
dolphin • short-tailed shrew
procurement, and social interactions.
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Echolocation is known to be employed by most bats (all members of the
suborder Microchiroptera and one genus, Rousettus, of the Megachiroptera);
most, if not all, toothed whales and porpoises (Odontoceti), but apparently no baleen whales; a few shrews; and two
kinds of birds, the oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) of northern South America and
certain cave swiftlets (Collocalia) of Southeast Asia.
Echolocation pulses consist of short bursts of sound at frequencies ranging from play_arrow
about 1,000 hertz in birds to at least 200,000 hertz in whales. Bats utilize
frequencies from as low as 11,000 hertz (e.g., the European free-tailed bat
[Tadarida teniotis]) to as high as 212,000 hertz (e.g., Percival’s trident bat Learn how dolphins use echolocation to
[Cloeotis percivali]). The pulses are repeated at varying rates (often in a single detect any object How dolphins "see" with
sound.
individual, depending upon the situation), beginning at about one per second. See all videos for this article
The rate may reach several hundred per second (e.g., in a bat close to its target).
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In microchiropteran bats and some toothed whales, a mutated form of a protein
called prestin increases their sensitivity to high-frequency sounds and thereby
facilitates the detection of return echoes. The nearly identical molecular
structure of the Prestin gene in these animals, which differs from the structure of play_arrow
the Prestin gene found in all other mammals, is an example of convergent
evolution, in which the two groups independently evolved the same form of the
echolocating protein in response to similar environmental pressures.
Why being “blind as a bat” is a myth The
misconception likely started because most
bats hunt by way of echolocation.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Meg Matthias.
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