Cetacea (/sɪˈteɪʃə/) is a widely distributed and diverse clade of aquatic mammals that today consists of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetaceans are carnivorous and finned. Most species live in the sea, some in rivers. The name is derived from the Latin cetus “whale”, itself from the Greek κῆτος kētos “huge fish”.
There are around 89 extant species, which are divided into two groups or parvorders, the Odontoceti or toothed whales, a group of more than 70 species that includes the dolphins, porpoises, belugas, narwhals, sperm and beaked whales, and the Mysticeti or baleen whales, of which there are now 15 species. The extinct ancestors of modern whales are the Archaeoceti.
