Copy of `Dolphins and Cetaceans glossary`

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Dolphins and Cetaceans glossary Category: Animals and Nature > Dolphins and cetaceans Date & country: 03/06/2011, USA Words: 133

School
A co-ordinated group of cetaceans (term is most often used when referring to dolphins).

Serrated
Saw-toothed or jagged.

Snout
The part of the head extending from the front margin of the eye to the anterior tip of the head.

Sonar
The system used by many cetaceans to echolocate (echolocation).

Sounding dive
A deep (and usually longer) dive after a series of shallow dives.

Species
A group of similiar animals, reproductively isolated from all other such groups and able to breed and produce viable offspring.

Spiracle
An uncommonly used name for the blowhole.

Spout
A visible cloud expelled by a cetacean during exhalation at the water surface; also called the blow.

Spyhopping
Raising the head vertically out of the water, then sinking below the water without a splash. Used to check an area for hazards.

Stranding
The act of a cetacean coming onto land, either alive or dead.

Striations
Narrow, parallel grooves or lines.

Stripe
A thin horizontal line or area of pigment.

Subspecies
A recognisable sub-population of a species.

Tail Stock
In cetaceans, the tapered rear part of the body, just in front of the flukes.

Tail-breaching
The act of throwing the rear portion of the body out of the water amd slapping it sideways onto the surface.

Temperate
Mid-latitute regions between the tropics and polar circles, with a mild, seasonally-changing climate; cold temperate regions are nearer the poles, warm temperate, near the equator.

Terete
Slightly tapering at both ends.

Terminal
Located at the tip of the snout; describing the position of the mouth.

Throat grooves
Grooves on the throat present in some whales.

Toothed whale
A suborder of whales, dolphins and porpoises with teeth, members of the Odontoceti suborder.

Transient
Always on the move rather than mostly in one area (term applies mostly to Orcas)

Transverse
Situated or lying across; crosswise.

Tropical
Pertaining to the low latitudes of the world between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

Truncate
Having the edge vertical and straight.

Tubercles
Circular bumps along the flippers, dorsal fins or heads of some cetaceans.

Ventral
Pertaining to the undersside or lower part of the body.

Ventral Grooves
In some baleen whales, the furrows extending backwards from the chin.

Viviparous Reproduction
Bearing life young that have received nutrients from the mother during development.

Wake-riding
Swimming in the frothy wake of a vessel.

Whale
The general term applied to any large cetacean, and a specific one applied to certain smaller ones.

Whale lice
Small, crab-like parasites that cling to and live upon some species of whale.

Whalebone
Comb-like plates hanging from the upper jaw of some large whales, used to filter small prey from the water. Otherwise known as baleen.

Whaling
The intentional hunting and killing of whales for the meat, blubber, oil and other products.