| Odontoceti Fossil range: Eocene–Recent | |
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| Scientific classification
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Odontoceti | |
The Odontoceti (toothed whales) form a suborder of the cetaceans, including sperm whales, beaked whales, orca, dolphins, and others. As the name suggests, the suborder is characterized by having teeth, rather than baleen as do animals in the other suborder of cetaceans, Mysticeti. However, fossils indicate that early Baleen whales had teeth as well before evolving baleen, so defining the Odontoceti on teeth alone is problematic, and paleontologists have instead identified other features uniting fossil and modern odontocetes that are not shared by mysticetes.
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