Skip to content
Physeteroidea
EntityQ21446362· pop 23· linked from 531 articles

Physeteroidea

Sign in to save

Also known as Physiteroidea

Physeteroidea is a superfamily that includes three extant species of whales: the sperm whale, in the genus Physeter, and the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale, in the genus Kogia. In the past, these genera have sometimes been united in a single family, the Physeteridae, with the two Kogia species in the subfamily Kogiinae; however, recent practice is to allocate the genus Kogia to its own family, the Kogiidae, leaving the Physeteridae as a monotypic (single extant species) family, although additional fossil representatives of both families are known.

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

5 sections
Contents
  • Characteristics
  • Evolution
  • Classification
  • ''Nomina dubia''
  • References

Physeteroidea is a superfamily that includes three extant species of whales: the sperm whale, in the genus Physeter, and the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale, in the genus Kogia. In the past, these genera have sometimes been united in a single family, the Physeteridae, with the two Kogia species in the subfamily Kogiinae; however, recent practice is to allocate the genus Kogia to its own family, the Kogiidae, leaving the Physeteridae as a monotypic (single extant species) family, although additional fossil representatives of both families are known.

== Characteristics == thumb|Sperm whale and bottlenose whale The sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest species of toothed whale, with adult bulls (males) growing to be about long, and weighing about . The two kogiid species are much smaller, around in length, and weighing .

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Physeteroidea” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (6)