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The Killer Whale

Fun Facts | Art and Poetry | Works Cited

'Orcinus orca'

What Does a Killer Whale Sound like?

By:

K. M. W.

Kingdom: Animalia -( Metazoa)

To be considered part of the Animalia group an animal must be Multicellular
Must be a heterotroph.
Most members of Animalia ingest food and digest it in an internal cavity
This Kingdom does not contain the prokaryotes (Kingdom Monera, includes bacteria, blue-green algae) or the protists (Kingdom Protista, includes unicellular eukaryotic organisms)
Most animals are diploid, meaning that the cells of adults contain two copies of the genetic material
Animals range in size from no more than a few cells to organisms weighing many tons, such as blue whales and giant squid
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Phylum: Chordata -

bilateral symmetry
segmented body, including segmented muscles
three germ layers and a well-developed coelom.
single, dorsal, hollow nerve cord, usually with an enlarged anterior end (brain)
tail projecting beyond (posterior to) the anus at some stage of development
pharyngeal pouches present at some stage of development
ventral heart, with dorsal and ventral blood vessels and a closed blood system
complete digestive system
bony or cartilaginous endoskeleton usually present.
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Class: Mammalia

Mammals have hair
Mammalian hair, made of a protein called keratin.
A mammal's hair sometimes serves as camouflage.
Mammals feed their newborn young with milk.
All animals chare three characteristic, they all have three middle ear bones, hair, and and the production of milk by modified sweat glands called mammary glands.
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Order: Cetacea

Cetaceans, along with bats, are considered some of the most derived mammals on the planet.
They evolved from terrestrial animals to an entirely aquatic life form that is completely separated from the land in all aspects of biology.
Cetaceans live, breed, rest, and carry out all of their life functions in the water.
They have fusiform, or streamlined body shape.
They also have paddle shaped front limbs. and vestigial hind limbs.

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Family: Delphinidae

With 32 species placed in 17 genera, this is by far the largest family of cetaceans.
Delphinids are small to medium-sized cetaceans, ranging from about 1.5 m in length and 50 kg weight to almost 10 m in length and 7000 kg.
to be continued . .

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Genus and Species: Orcinus orca

to be continued . .
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Fun Facts!

Killer whales live in groups called pods. A pod may have less than 5 to about 30 individuals: a mix of males, females, and calves of varying ages. Sometimes several smaller pods join together to form larger herds of 50 or more whales.
The killer whale is the largest member of the dolphin family.
Killer whales are among the fastest swimming marine mammals. They can swim as fast as 48 kph (30 mph), but they usually cruise at much slower speeds, about 3-10 kph (2-6 mph).
As big as a Killer Whale is, they cannot swallow anything bigger than plankton, because their bronchial tubes are two small.
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Art and Poetry

Killer Whales are huge and cute

They are very inelegant.

They can't eat big foods,

on the count of their lacking of the big enough bronchial tubes.

They are one of my favorite animals, and are very awesome.

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Works Cited:

Sessine, Suzanne . Animal Diversity Web. 1995. The University of Michigan
Museum of Zoology. 2004
<http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Orcinus_orca
.html>.

Fiore, Carrie. Personal interview. 11 Feb. 2004.

Google. 2003. 2004
<http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&c2coff=1&q=Kille
r+Whale+pictures&sa=N&tab=wi>.

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