The toothed whales (systematic name Odontoceti) form a suborder of the cetaceans. As the name suggests, the suborder is characterized by having teeth (rather than baleen as do animals in the other suborder of cetaceans, Mysticeti). Toothed whales are active hunters, feeding on fish, squid, and in some cases marine mammals.

Anatomy

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Toothed whales have a single blowhole on the top of the head (while the baleen whales possess two of them). The nostrils are not fused; one of them has become dominant over the other.

As an adaptation for their echolocation, toothed whale skulls have become asymmetric. Their brains are relatively big, although real growth didn't occur before their echolocation started to evolve. Toothed whales brains have a poor connection between the two hemispheres. Toothed whales have an organ called the melon on their head, which is used as a lens to focus their sound waves. Vocal chords are not present; their sounds are produced in the blowhole system instead. Toothed whales have lost their sense of smell, as well as their saliva glands.

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RT @DDayLanding: Toothed whales often hunt in groups, migrate together and share young-rearing duties.
PoliticalBee (B.L. McMillan) Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:24:30 -0000
RT @DDayLanding: Toothed whales often hunt in groups, migrate together and share young-rearing duties.
Toothed whales often hunt in groups, migrate together and share young-rearing duties.
DDayLanding (David Day) Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:20:05 -0000
Toothed whales often hunt in groups, migrate together and share young-rearing duties.

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