the whale shark | whale wars season 6 full episodes Whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. They may be an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins and porpoises. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla with even-toed ungulates and their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, having diverged about 40 , 000, 000 years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have split aside around 34 million yrs ago. The whales comprise 8-10 extant families: Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Balaenidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy correct whale), Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale), Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals), Physeteridae (the ejaculation whale), Kogiidae (the little and pygmy sperm whale), and Ziphiidae (the beaked whales). Whales ar...