An order of marine mammals including whales, dolphins, and porpoises, characterized by streamlined bodies and blowholes.
From Latin cetus (whale) + Greek -acea (group or class). The scientific name was formalized in the 18th century when Linnaeus classified cetaceans.
Whales aren't fish—they're mammals that breathe air and nurse their young—yet they gave up land for ocean, re-evolving fish-like bodies through evolution in a process called convergent evolution that still amazes scientists!
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