You think that is bad,
Imagine my surprise when I ordered Bombay Duck and got a fish.
Just like dolphin, dorado is a name given to several different species. The mahi mahi (aka Coryphaena hippurus) is one of them. The Salminus brasiliensis, a fresh water fish from South America, and the Sparus aurata, a Mediterranean species which is also known as the gilt-head bream, are also sometimes called dorados.
Imagine going to England ordering a duck and getting a faggot.
Okay, I see this is an old thread here, but we still need to have our little lesson in dolphin family relations.
All the whales and dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetacea, or Cetaceans.
These are divided into the sub-orders of Mysticeti (the baleen whales, Mystacoceti in some older references) and Odontoceti (toothed whales).
The Odontoceti are further divided into many families. Of these, there are four families of smaller toothed whales that are commonly called dolphins or porpoises. The terms “dolphin” and “porpoise” are informal names, and one will not find any widespread agreement in the literature on how the words are used.
[ol][li] Platanistidae. These are the fresh-water river dolphins.[/li][li] Stenidae. This includes the Rough-Toothed dolphin (if you’ve been to Sea Life Park in Honolulu, you’ve seen these) and several other deep ocean species.[/li][li] Delphinidae. These include the most commonly known dolphins, such as Tursiops (several species bottlenosed dolphins), Lagenorhynchus (several species including Pacific White-Sided dolphin) and many others. The Killer Whale, Orcinus Orca, is in this family. Yes, killer whales are dolphins.[/li][li] Phocoenidae. These are the one most commonly called “porpoise”, including the common harbor porpoise.[/ol][/li]
But the U. S. Navy, which had an on-going dolphin training program for many years (no idea if they still do), consistently uses the term “porpoise” for all of them. Many other writers have followed this convention just because the Navy does. Other writers seem to think the two words are entirely synonymous, and use them interchangeably. I never encountered any literature that specifically used “dolphin” for the Phocoenidae, though.
So the most common consensus has always seemed to be that Platanistidae, Stenidae, and Delphinidae are “dolphins” while Phocoenidae are “porpoises”. But this usage is not at all universal.
So, what’s the purpose of a porpoise? And more seriously, are Navy Seals considered pinnipeds?
Even worse if it comes with its own hair.
(Might be a bit rich for you, anyway.)
Here, have some of this Blind Robin instead.
@JBGUSA: How did you manage to quote a piece of my post, yet the quote header links it back to somebody else’s post (Post #45 above)?
It’s not too difficult. Just go to Helen’s Eidolon’s post and use the Quote button to create a response with a link. Then delete her text from the link and use copy & paste to insert your text.
Cut and paste magic.
I’m not a mod but I’m pretty sure they would frown on this.
I mean, sure, I could have figured that out. But, why? I assumed it must have happened by accident, and I was wondering how that could have happened.
Moderator Note
JBGUSA, it’s against the rules to change the text within an attributed quote box. I would consider attributing a quote to a different poster to be against this rule. Whether or not you did this deliberately, let’s avoid it in the future. No warning issued.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I didn’t. And would never do that. My apologies.
Moderator Note
There was really no need to bump this a year after the fact just to post that. Since we prefer that old threads only be bumped to post new information, I’m going to close this.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator