TAXONOMY OF CETACEANS
(whales, dolphins and porpoises)
In biology,
taxonomy is the science of
naming and
hierarchically grouping
organisms according to their proven or presumed relationships.
The system was developed by the Swedish scientist
Linnaeus in the 18th century, and is based on two main features:
-
Binomial nomenclature
Any organism's scientific name is a combination of two terms - the genus and the
species.
Both terms are italicised and the genus name is also capitalised (e.g. Orcinus orca).
-
Classification categories
Species are ordered hierarchically into a series of categories and subcategories, which become more and
more specific as the species level is approached.
The 7 major categories are:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Whales, dolphins and porpoises, collectively called
cetaceans, belong to the order
Cetacea.
For cetaceans, an extra category called suborder (placed between order and family) comes into play, so that a distinction
can be made between toothed and baleen species - i.e.
Odontoceti and
Mysticeti.
A third suborder called Archaeoceti comprises a group of extinct animals, which is not included in
our Taxonomy Browser below.