Talk:Monodontidae

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What Makes a Monodontid?

This might seem silly, but I'm not understanding from reading the article what distinguishes the monodontid.

For instance, the marsupial is distinguished from other mammals in that it gives birth prematurely and the newborns are attached to the mother's teats while outside the body. In most (but not all) cases, the newborn are protected by a pouch, or marsupium, hence the name marsupial.

And a monotreme is distinguished form other mammals in that it lays eggs.

This article seems to lack the defining characteristic(s) of Monodontidae. The name means "one tooth." Are belugas and narwhals distinct from other toothed whales in that they only have one tooth? 65.33.138.115 (talk) 23:15, 24 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I think the article is reasonably clear about the distinguishing features (second paragraph, mainly), although I'm sure it could be improved. As for the name, while it's based on the old belief that narwhals only have one tooth, they actually have two, and belugas have quite a few (the article already mentions this), so that's a red herring. Really, they're a family because they are a monophyletic clade, rather than because there's one specific feature that they share. Anaxial (talk) 21:09, 25 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Changing the current reference to the superfamily Delphinoidea?

I am a new editor and an old biologist, but I am not an expert in whale taxonomy. It seems to me that the logic in the Taxonomy section requires changing the phrase "which diverged from the Delphinoidea" to "which diverged from the Delphinidae" or "which diverged from the rest of the Delphinoidea". If there are only three generally-accepted families, as the text suggests, then a correction from the superfamily name "Delphinoidea" to the family name "Delphinidae" seems the most clear and precise to me.

I would welcome comments and I expect someone familiar with the taxonomy or evolution of the whale families could resolve this easily.

Belted Kingfisher (talk) 12:13, 16 September 2020 (UTC) Belted Kingfisher (talk) 12:04, 16 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. What matters here, for the purposes of Wikipedia, is what the cited source says, and it says "diverged from the Delphinidae", so that's what we should say, too. (It looks as if the editor who initially added this information made a typing error). A quick search of the literature suggests that this is probably still the consensus on molecular evidence, but that it has been disputed on morphological ones. Obviously, if anyone has more/better information, that can be added with relevant sources, but for the moment, let's follow what our existing source says. I've made the edit. Anaxial (talk) 19:04, 16 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Anaxial. Good edit. Belted Kingfisher (talk) 02:48, 17 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

“Like other whales, they also use echolocation to navigate.”

This comment in the introduction with its reference is too general: not all whales use echolocation. The introductory subordinate clause “Like other whales,…” should better reflect the type of whales that use echolocation, as not all other whales do. 2.152.176.82 (talk) 17:01, 21 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]