The false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) is a cetacean, and the third largest member of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae). It lives in temperate and tropical waters throughout the world. As its name implies, the false killer whale shares characteristics, such as appearance, with the more widely known Orca (killer whale). Like the orca, the false killer whale attacks and kills other cetaceans. However, the two dolphin species do not belong to the same genus.
The false killer whale has not been extensively studied in the wild; much of the data about it has been derived by examining stranded animals.
The species is the only member of the Pseudorca genus.
Read more about False Killer Whale: Population and Distribution, Description, Human Interaction, Beachings, Conservation
Famous quotes containing the words false, killer and/or whale:
“That author who draws a character, even though to common view incongruous in its parts, as the flying-squirrel, and, at different periods, as much at variance with itself as the caterpillar is with the butterfly into which it changes, may yet, in so doing, be not false but faithful to facts.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“I see the killer in him
and he turns on an oven,
an oven, an oven, an oven
and on a pie plate he sticks
in my Yellow Star....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“And one rose in a tent of sea and gave
A darkening shudder; water fell away;
The whale stood shining, and then sank in spray.”
—Yvor Winters (1900–1968)