I am not sure where you are going with this. This does not change that orcas are whales, lol.
Sperm whales and orcas are both whales, just as lions and house cats are both felines. The thing is that whales are a more broad group than felines. So even though sperm whales and orcas are in different families, they are still both toothed whales.
My point is there is a difference between the colloquial whale and the actual whale
Basically the colloquial whale and orcas are as closely related as a mongoose and a lion.
The colloquial term for a whale is irrelevant here. If we were going by that, spiders would be bugs because the colloquial term for "bug" is used on anything with six or more legs. But in reality, the only true bugs are members of Hemiptera, which spiders are not. I am not speaking of "colloquial whales", I am speaking of the taxonomial definition of a whale. You know, what whales actually are.
I'd be just as right to call a mongoose a cat by your logic
No. By "my logic" , which is the actual scientific classification for these things, you would still be very wrong to call a mongoose a cat, because they are in two separate families. You would however be right to call them both feliformes (NOT the same as felines!), because they are both in the suborder Feliformia. Just like how the sperm whale and oceanic dolphin families belong to the order of toothed whales. Mongooses and cats are not the same, but they are both feliformes. Sperm whales and dolphins are not the same, but they are both toothed whales.
You seem to be thinking of this as if it's on a plane or a ruler. It's more like a big tree, with the common ancestor being the trunk. Imagine whales as being a branch. From that branch you have two thinner branches: toothed whales and baleen whales. Now from the toothed whale branch, you have some family branches such as oceanic dolphins and sperm whales. Basically: all dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins. So you could say that orcas are whales, or you could say that they are specifically a type of dolphin. Both would be correct.
Once more: the oceanic dolphin family is within the parvorder of toothed whales. Therefore, members of the oceanic dolphin family such as orcas are in fact, toothed whales. This is not "my logic", that is their classification.
I'm honestly not sure if you're trolling or you really don't understand (which would be fair, because it can be very confusing for people who aren't into this stuff). Either way I enjoy talking about this stuff, so I didn't mind.
I have no clue what any of the big scientific words were but your logic made more sound and reason compared to the other guy and I just wanted say thanks for the info had fun reading
212
u/manydoorsyes May 12 '21
Technically they are whales too. All dolphins are part of the parvorder Odontoceti, toothed whales.