Dolphins are Mammals. All dolphins, porpoises, and whales belong to a group called Cetacea.



What kind of animal
is a dolphin?

CONTINUE
Are dolphins and porpoises the same?

Being a mammal means that they breathe air using lungs,
nurse their young with milk, have hair, have a constant
temperature, and give birth to live young.

Watch a dolphin give birth!

to wacth.

Requires Quicktime.
Dolphins breath through a single blowhole on the top of their head. Bottlenose dolphins can hold their breath for about 10 minutes.
These small black dots above the dolphins mouth show the location of where the whiskers on a dolphin were. The whiskers fall off after a few days!
There are two living groups of cetaceans:
whales with teeth and whales with baleen.
Dolphins have teeth in their mouth to catch fish and squid. Dolphins do not chew their food, they swallow it whole instead!
The baleen plates inside the mouth of baleen whales help it to eat. The baleen strains the plankton out of the water. Some baleen whales will eat up one ton of food a day!
DOLPHINS

DIVE DEEPER
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