Monodontidae

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Monodontidae
Temporal range: Late Miocene–Recent
Beluga whale
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Superfamily: Delphinoidea
Family: Monodontidae
J. E. Gray, 1821
Type genus
Monodon
Extant genera

Monodon
Delphinapterus

The

Pacific
Oceans; the distribution of narwhals is restricted to the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.

Monodontids have a wide-ranging carnivorous diet, feeding on fish, molluscs, and small crustaceans. They have reduced teeth, with the beluga having numerous simple teeth, and the narwhal having only two teeth, one of which forms the tusks in males. Gestation lasts 14–15 months in both species, and almost always results in a single calf. The young are not weaned for a full two years, and do not reach sexual maturity until they are five to eight years of age. Family groups travel as part of herds, or 'pods', which may contain several hundred individuals.[2]

Taxonomy

Skull of a cross between a narwhal and a beluga whale, at the Zoological Museum, Copenhagen

The monodontids, oceanic dolphins (Delphinidae) and porpoises (Phocoenidae) together comprise the Delphinoidea superfamily. Genetic evidence suggests the porpoises are more closely related to the white whales, and these two families constitute a separate clade which diverged from the Delphinidae within the past 11 million years.[3][4]

  • Suborder
    Odontoceti
    • Superfamily Delphinoidea
      • Family Monodontidae
      • Subfamily Delphinapterinae
        • Genus
          Delphinapterus
          • Delphinapterus leucas, beluga
        • Genus †Casatia
          • Casatia thermophila
      • Subfamily
        Monodontinae
        • Genus † Bohaskaia[5]
          • Bohaskaia monodontoides
        • Genus
          Monodon
          • Monodon monoceros, narwhal

References

  1. ^ Bohaskaia monodontoides, a New Monodontid (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Delphinoidea) from the Pliocene of the Western North Atlantic Ocean
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-87196-871-5
    .
  3. PMID 10837160
    .
  4. S2CID 202018525
    .
  5. S2CID 55606151
    .

External links
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