Why do whales look like fish?
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Why do whales look like fish?
Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are mammals that look like big fish. They have flippers instead of front limbs and they have no back limbs at all. They also have a tail that is flattened to form two flaps called flukes. The tail flaps up and down unlike fish, whose tails flap from side to side.
Why whales and dolphins look like fish but they are mammals?
Whales are warm blooded, which means they keep a high body temperature that does not change in the cold water. Fish are cold-blooded, so their body temperature changes depending on the temperature of their environment. Fish lay eggs, which must still grow into a baby fish. So whales are indeed mammals and not fish!
Why is a whale more closely related to a land mammal than a fish?
Their common ancestor lived at the beginning of the Eocene, and probably looked something like Indohyus, basically a small, stocky artiodactyl about the size of a raccoon, the fossils of which have been found in what is today Pakistan.
How is a whale different from a fish even though both are aquatic animals?
Fishes and whales are both vertebrates, and live in similar aquatic environments. Except for a few species, whales only live in the ocean water, whereas fishes inhabit in both fresh and salt water. Being mammals, whales are warm-blooded, and are required to maintain a constant warm body temperature.
Does whale taste like fish?
Since whales live in the water, you would expect that they would taste like fish. However, whale meat does not taste like fish. The very few that have managed to taste whale meat have described it as something similar to moose or reindeer meat. Dolphins and porpoises count as whales.
Is whale a fish explain?
They are NOT fish. They are mammals that spend their entire lives in the water. Cetaceans are the group of mammals that includes the whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
Why is a whale a mammal but not a shark?
Just peek past the tail of the blue whale to a spot high on the wall beneath an arch to the right at the back of the hall. Unlike whales, sharks are not mammals but belong to a group of cartilaginous fishes. The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) earns the name “whale” solely because of its size.
What is the relationship between whales and fish?
Fish and whales are both vertebrates, which means they both have backbones. They also live in aquatic environments. Except for a couple of species, whales live only in the ocean water. Fish, however, inhabit both fresh and salt water.
According to molecular evidence, the closest living relatives of whales are, quite surprisingly, the artiodactyls, a group of hoofed mammals that includes deer, cows, sheep, pigs, giraffes, camels and hippos. Based on these physical similarities, Thewissen suggests that the raoellids are a sister group to the whales.
What differences do whales and fish have?
Whales, along with dolphins and porpoises, are warm-blooded mammals and breathe air like humans do. There are some significant differences between whales and fish: Whales breathe air through lungs. Fish use gills to extract air from water.
Is whale meat toxic?
Toxicity. Tests have revealed that in whale meat sold in Japan, high levels of mercury and other toxins are present. A research study was conducted by Tetsuya Endo, Koichi Haraguchi and Masakatsu Sakata at the University of Hokkaido found high levels of mercury in the organs of whales, particularly the liver.