Talk:Porpoise

This Page

This page needs to be edited. DOLPHINS ARE MAMMALS. DOLPHINS ARE RELATED TO PORPOISES. DOLPHINS ARE CUTE. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.38.70.53 (talk) 00:56, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I think someone needs to adress this - it is my understanding too that in certain parts of the world 'dolphin' refers to a fish.

92.2.218.127 (talk) 10:32, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Porpoises and dolphins

I have removed the recently added paragraph that said

"The critical distinction between porpoises and dolphins, is that porpoises tend to be more talkative and relaxed in social situations whereas dolphins have a tendency towards shyness."

Knowing little about the topic, I'm quite sure however that this is not the critical distinction. I first thought about changing that into simply "a distinction"; however, the whole sentence sounds quite awkward to me ("talkative"? "relaxed"? "shyness"? Are these terms any scholar would use?), so I decided for moving it to the talk page.

LjL 5 July 2005 23:18 (UTC)

---

First I apologize if I have posted incorrectly, but I have a question -- I grew up in the TX Gulf Coast area, and remember seeing what I presumed to be porpoises -- that's what my dad said they were -- but they were dark brown and hairy -- is that a porpoise or was I mistaken about what I saw? thanks in advance.

GT 204.34.247.11 14:39, 15 December 2006 (UTC) 204.34.247.11 20:09, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Habitat?

A section detailing the areas of the world where different types of porpoises live would be most helpful.

It would also be nice to see something about porpoises portrayed in TV, movies, books, music, etc. (I'm listening to the Monkees' "Porpoise Song" right now, which is the only reason I'm thinking about it."

taxonomy section is a confusing distraction

It took me several minutes to realize that the Taxonomy section shows a superset of the Porpoise family. In other words, that section is about half un-related to the main topic. I don't know much about whales, so maybe someone who does could change the section to be clearer. --Markhu 21:11, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Boy, I agree, but it looks like this pattern is followed in some cases (cf. Delphinidae) but not others (River dolphin). I'm going to pose this question at Wikipedia:WikiProject Cetaceans and see what comes up. --Graham^talk/mail/e 06:42, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism

Erm.. there is a bit of vandalism on this page.

I was looking through the wiki, and found this page. I was shocked to find it full of vandalism which shook my utter faith in Wikipedia to the core. I have removed all the vandalism in the opening paragraphs, but as i am no expert of porpoises, have not added any new information to fill in the gaps left by the vandal. I do hope someone else will fill this in, as i am very interested in this group of species.

Gadgetfingers (not a member of wikipedia) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.57.37.212 (talk) 01:36, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Wieght

I am doing a school research project on marine wildlife and noticed a lack of what a porpise's wieght is. It should be added.

There isnt any data on the porpoise page as the six species of porpoise vary in weight by quite a lot, have a look at the separate species pages for weight information. chris_huh 10:48, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Swimming upside down

I've removed this: "When a porpoise swims upside down, it is searching for a mate.". Very little is known about the mating behaviour of porpoises, and it seems unlikely. Kla'quot 08:06, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Proposed merger

This article and List of porpoise species are almost identical. Is there a reason to maintain the list separately from this article? Kla'quot 09:24, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Porpoise/Shark Convergent Evolution

Shouldn't there be some information concerning the similarities between Porpoises and Sharks despite one being a fish and the other being a mammal?

On Porpoise

What, no mention of the pun in the article? I think it's relevant.

Porpoising

Why does the autorotate article link to porpoising which is redirected to here? Porpoising is much different than a porpoise. 72.192.195.24 16:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Most obvious difference is not the teeth, nor the size, but the shape

The article says "The most obvious visible difference between the two groups is that porpoises have flattened, spade-shaped teeth distinct from the conical teeth of dolphins, and shorter beaks."

This is obviously a true statement if you understand it to mean "when they have no skin on them". This fact is easy to cite because it's the way taxonomists are most likely to see them.

For most readers of this article, however, the most obvious difference between the two of them, other than the size, is the shape. Simply stated, one is more Fusiform and the other more saccular.

Not so simply stated, because the beak of a dolphin pokes out of the front of it's head, it tapers to a point more on both ends. The shape of a porpoise head makes it more tear-dropped shaped overall, if you pointed the head down.

Readers want to know to tell a porpoise from a dolphin when they actually see one. The addition of simple line drawings would suffice. Chrisrus (talk) 16:04, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Also, can someone add a decent picture of the creature? current images are not very clear. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.120.10.95 (talk) 14:34, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

Mereswine

Called mereswine by whom, exactly? Sergeirichard (talk) 20:16, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

mereswine is a old english word, see old dutch word meerswijn, i.e. sea hog. Porpoise derives from French. Vincnet (talk) 15:30, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

White porpoise

White porpoise, the beluga, is not a Phocoenidae. The white porpoise is not describe on this article. Vincnet (talk) 15:30, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Attacks on two million people a year?

I find that... not very plausible, to say the least. Likewise, there is nothing at the source link.