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There are two major groups of whales : the toothed whales (suborder Odontoceti) and the toothless baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti).
Toothed Whales
Toothed whales include two families that are widely distributed, the beaked and bottlenose whales (family Ziphiidae)r cachalot (family Physeteridae); the beluga, or white whale, and the narwhal (family Monodontidae), small polar whales with no dorsal fin and only a few teeth; the river dolphins (family Platanispidae), which inhabit muddy rivers of India and South America; and several families better known as ocean dolphins and porpoises. The killer whale and pilot whale are types of dolphin. The white whale Moby-Dick, of Herman Melville's novel, was not a beluga but a sperm whale with prominent white features.
Toothed whales range in length from 4 to 60 ft (1.3–18.5 m). They catch fast-moving prey, like fish or squid. Many species use echolocation (sonar) for underwater navigation and hunting. They have a single blowhole and a wide throat to accommodate large prey. Some of the larger ones, like the sperm whale, can dive as deep as 1 mi (1.6 km).
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