Talk:Cetacea

Environmental stresses Suggestion Comment

@Waughd and @Deantifanizer have been undoing each other's edits on whether climate change (mentioned in summary) is supported as a threat. It's appropriate in the summary, since the sections on Strandings and Environmental hazards both address climate change, through its effects on currents and acidification. Those sections are where the citations belong, not in the summary. Maybe they could be better organized. Kim9988 (talk) 17:32, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

Anatomical issues

In the dolphin anatomy diagram used in this article why does the anus connect to the stomach, and the intestine go off on a different path? Is it just mislabelled?Regularuk (talk) 13:22, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

Well spotted, yes it's just wrong. It looks like the oesophagus connects to what is labelled kidney then to anus... It is more than a labelling issue though as the urogenital opening should be anterior to the anus. I need to find a reliable source as the internet has spread this one far and wide. Are you any good at editing SVGs? |→ Spaully ^~talk~  09:02, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

I've had a go at improving it. Any suggestions/comments welcome. |→ Spaully ^~talk~  10:33, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Brain size

There's a line that has a clarification request. The line reads:

Allometric analysis indicates that mammalian brain size scales at approximately two-thirds or three-quarter exponent of the body mass.

I agree it's a mouthful. I believe what it is saying is that larger species generally have larger brains, but at less than a 1:1 ratio. How about this?

Allometric analysis of species body mass to brain size indicates that species with greater body mass tend to have brains that are larger than those of species with lower body mass, but the increase in species body mass only translates to an increased brain size between the square of the cube root of the body mass and the cube of the fourth root of the body mass.

Anyone want to take a stab at saying that more clearly than me? :) - UtherSRG (talk) 13:54, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

What do you think, @Speminallium:? Does that clarify? - UtherSRG (talk) 13:57, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

It's not the easiest concept to get across. How about:

There have been studies of the relationship between brain mass (weight) and body mass for different species of mammals. They show that larger species generally have larger brains, but the increase is not fully proportional. Typically the brain mass only increases in proportion to somewhere between the two-thirds power (or the square of the cube root) and the three-quarters power (or the cube of the fourth root) of the body mass.

m_brain ∝ (m_body)^k

where k is between two-thirds and three-quarters.

Thus if Species B is twice the size of Species A, its brain size will typically be somewhere between 60% and 70% higher.---Speminallium (talk) 05:40, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

Ok. I massaged your text into the article and removed the cn tag. - UtherSRG (talk) 11:40, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

Reading level

The lexical level and language of much of the anatomical description, such as ears, is well above a university level to the point only a Ph.D could decipher it. Wikipedia is a reference and if readers need another reference to understand it, the purpose is lost. 2001:CE8:143:8CEE:59AD:BA25:7415:3257 (talk) 20:32, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

Yes it was pretty ridiculous. I've rewritten the Ear section at a more normal level. Chiswick Chap (talk) 15:52, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Sentence regarding sperm whales is missing two nouns.

A sentence in the article currently reads, “The sperm whale has a particularly pronounced melon; this is called the and contains the eponymous , hence the name "sperm whale".

The missing first noun appears to be ‘junk’ per an article in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. The missing second noun appears to be ‘spermaceti’. 2A00:C280:101:41:6800:6D10:2028:38 (talk) 11:18, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Both appear to be in the text, please try clearing your cache. CMD (talk) 11:59, 24 April 2024 (UTC)