cetacean

noun

ce·ta·cean | \si-ˈtā-shən

Definition of cetacean

: any of an order (Cetacea) of aquatic mostly marine mammals that includes the whales, dolphins, porpoises, and related forms and that have a torpedo-shaped nearly hairless body, paddle-shaped forelimbs but no hind limbs, one or two nares opening externally at the top of the head, and a horizontally flattened tail used for locomotion

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Among marine mammals, pinnipeds, such as seals, do—but cetaceans, such as whales and dolphins, do not. — Anna Diamond, Smithsonian, "Do Marine Mammals Yawn and More Questions From Our Readers," 28 June 2018 The North Atlantic right whale, for example, reaches over 50 feet in length and is one of the most endangered cetaceans on the planet. — Brian Switek, Smithsonian, "Today’s Whales Are Huge, But Why Aren’t They Huger?," 27 June 2018 One of the article’s authors, vertebrate biologist Nel Beaumont, wrote in an email that there were not enough older books about cetaceans in their sample to determine whether accuracy had improved over time. — Claire Eamer, Smithsonian, "How Children’s Books Reveal Our Evolving Relationship With Whales," 27 Mar. 2018 As Ruth Schuster at Haaretz reports, bones of both cetaceans were found near Gibraltar, indicating that the whales ranged much further afield, even using the Mediterranean Sea as a calving ground. — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, "Romans May Have Hunted Whales to Extinction in Their Home Waters," 11 July 2018 Not just an ordinary cetacean but a blue whale, the biggest of the species. — Tom Titus, latimes.com, "On Theater: Friends come in all shapes and sizes," 24 May 2018 The plan is to survey sites where offshore wind farms might be built, to assess the risk of any development there interfering with local cetaceans. — The Economist, "A better way to transmit messages underwater," 10 May 2018 Modern baleen whales include many of the world’s largest cetaceans, such as blue, fin, humpback, right, bowhead, and minke whales. — National Geographic, "Prehistoric Toothless Whale Among Oldest of Its Kind," 19 Apr. 2018 Wanting to know what killed it, scientists brought the cetacean’s 13,000-pound body to a lab for a necropsy. — Emily Atkin, The New Republic, "The Global Crisis of Plastic Pollution," 16 Apr. 2018

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