Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Are Killer Whales actually Dolphins?

7 Answers

Relevance
  • 5 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Killer whales are the species Orcinus orca, a type of oceanic dolphin (family Delphinidae).

    There are five or six subfamilies of Delphinidae (the subfamily for white-beaked dolphins and Atlantic white-sided dolphins is uncertain). Killer whales belong to one species in one subfamily.

  • 5 years ago

    Killer whales are toothed whales. All whales were originally toothed whales, but some of them have evolved into baleen whales. Toothed whales are classified in Odontoceti and baleen whales in Mysticeti. Looking at the family tree based on DNA, it would appear that the killer whale evolved from an ancestor very similar to the white-sided dolphin. Some people do call killer whales dolphins, but many other toothed whales have common names such as porpoise, pilot whale, sperm whale and false killer whale. Therefore dolphin is not the official common name for the Odontoceti. It is therefore better to refer to killerwhales as either orcas, or killer whales.

  • 5 years ago

    They are the largest of the dolphin species. They got the name killer whale by Spanish sailors a while ago due to their large size.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    They are big sexy dolphins. If I could be reincarnated as a sex toy, I would come back as a Killer Whale shaped dildo.

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • raczak
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    Killer Whales Actually Dolphins

  • ?
    Lv 7
    5 years ago

    they are related to dolphins

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    L

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.