Pinnipeds are part of the order Carnivora.
In the last hour, I have encountered “boni” as a plural of “bonus” and “walri” as a plural of “walrus” on this message board. We are obviously being invaded by body snatching Romans from the 1st century AD! :eek:
Would that be the Romi?
Screw your pride. There is no shame in saying “I learned something new today.”
An off-topic hijack made thread winner this morning. 
“X is really a Y not a Z” discussions are usually pointless when you’re talking about closely related types. It’s all about defining your terminology and the purpose of your classification.
For example “Chimpanzees are apes, not monkeys.”
Yeah, well that’s true for a certain set of definitions useful to zoologists, but it’s certainly not necessarily true for more general or even historical uses of those terms.
It’s not even useful scientifically, since African monkeys are more closely related to chimps than they are to South American monkeys. It’s exactly analogous to the orca/dolphin situation. Orcas are big and look like “whales” in the same way chimps are big and look like “apes”.
Conjugate the verb!
Right here in public? Isn’t that illegal?
You don’t have to admit you were wrong, you just have to admit you were confused: “Dude, I just didn’t get what you were saying. I thought you mean orcas were the same species as flipper, and I knew that was crazy. But you meant they were a different species of dolphin, and I looked it up, and dang, you’re right. Orcas (and pilot whales) are all in the dolphin family. I had no idea. And did you know there are river dolphins? How cool is that.”
Humans are apes. We are not gorillas.
And jayjay, I’m pretty sure I already knew that the pinnipeds are in Carnivora, and if I didn’t know, I should have. I should have said that some non-pinniped carnivores are arguably aquatic.
You’re right - my bad.
Romanus sum
Romanus es
Romanus est
Romani sumus
Romani estis
Romani sunt
Romanus eunt domum.
(People called Romans, they go house)
I saw some nifty National Geographic-type footage of two Orcas playing tennis with a baby seal just off-shore; they were whacking it back and forth between them with their tails. The thing was getting 10 or more feet in the air.
I considered after I posted that that I may have read the paragraph wrong, but by the time I realized, it was too late to edit. 
Sorry about that.
Not all of us are, anyway.
*
Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street
From my window I’m starin’ while my coffee goes cold*
No, don’t you apologize, jayjay. I had forgotten that when I posted, and you were correct to remind me.
Scientists enjoy those Latin names for animals because they can be so precise and specific. As discussed above, there tends to be confusion and ambiguity when people throw around the common names.
– Are the dolphins a subset of whales? According to some usages, “whale” is the common term for cetaceans in general, with dolphins being described as “small whales”.
– What is the difference between a dolphin and a porpoise? These critters belong to three families within the cetaceans: Delphinidae, Phocoenidae, and Stenidae. (Sea Life Park in Honolulu has, or had, some Steno dolphins. They are reputedly the smartest dolphins you’ll ever find.) In popular usage, the words “dolphin” and “porpoise” are commonly used interchangeably. Scientists more often refer to Delphinidae and Stenidae as dolphins, while Phocoenidae are called porpoises. The U. S. Navy, in their literature on dolphin research, calls them all porpoises, so some writers follow that precedent. In most literature I’ve seen, there are 48 distinct species, including orcas and pilot whales and those weird river dolphins.
– What counts as a species? Depends on who’s counting. Some scientists are “lumpers”, who tend to group very similar types as the same species. For example, there are three sub-species of bottlenose dolphins (Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean), yet these are commonly considered to be all one species. Certainly, they can interbreed freely if given the chance. (Marine World, formerly in Redwood City CA, had an elderly Pacific housed with some hot cutie female Atlantics. Some time after elderly male died, a baby dolphin puppy suddenly appeared one day, much to everyone’s surprise.)
Then there are the “splitters” who prefer to distinguish more of those marginally-distinct types as separate species. For example, the Artic orcas and the Antarctic orcas look a little different, and some call them separate species (I think). I think the same is true of some Lagenorhynchus spp. (the white-sided dolphins, among others), that are either called the same species or not, depending on who’s writing about them.
There is separate confusion about what a “seal” is. Those with externally visible ears are Otariidae, or “eared seals”, better known as sea lions. Those without externally visible ears are Phocidae, or “true seals”. But wait! There is also a group of “fur seals” (famous for getting shot by fur seal hunters or getting painted green by fur seal protectors) that have external ears. They are commonly called seals, but in fact they are Otariidae, and should really be grouped with sea lions!
However, by all accounts, “dolphin” refers to a whole bunch of critters, just like “pine tree” does, and orca is one of them.
They’re the same species for all intensive porpoises.
Congratulations! You’ve just received the world’s first All-Porpoise Greeting Card
