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cetacean

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cetacean

Any of the exclusively aquatic placental mammals constituting the order Cetacea. They are found in oceans worldwide and in some freshwater environments. Modern cetaceans are grouped in two suborders: about 70 species of toothed whales (Odontoceti) and 13 species of toothless baleen whales (Mysticeti). They have a tapered body, no external hind limbs, and a tail ending in a horizontal blade of two lobes, or flukes. Cetaceans must come to the water's surface to breathe through blowholes located on top of their head. See also whale.


cetacean
1. of, relating to, or belonging to the Cetacea, an order of aquatic placental mammals having no hind limbs and a blowhole for breathing: includes toothed whales (dolphins, porpoises, etc.) and whalebone whales (rorquals, right whales, etc.)
2. a whale


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
And though none of them precisely answer to any known species of the present time, they are yet sufficiently akin to them in general respects, to justify their taking ranks as Cetacean fossils.
The public demanded sharply that the seas should at any price be relieved from this formidable cetacean.
In plain prose, here are four whales as well known to the students of Cetacean History as Marius or Sylla to the classic scholar.
 
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