Talk:Porpoise

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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 WikiProject Cetaceans and see what comes up. --Grahamtalk/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.

→Agreed. Especially after I read "Some porpoises produce a variety of clicks and whistles, which are thought to be primarily for social purposes." I'm dying, here! 24.77.16.7 (talk) 06:41, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

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)
 * But is mereswine notable in contemporary usage? There are many Old English equivalents for Modern English words, but that doesn't mean every article must mention archaic terms as alternatives. Lakshwadeep (talk) 23:42, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I dunno. I see no reason why an article about porpoises couldn't have a section on equivalent nouns in other languages or even etymology of the word.  If I am incorrect, I'm sure somebody will explain why in a few years and set me straight. ;)  24.77.16.7 (talk) 07:42, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Because wikipedia is not a dictionary. Anaxial (talk) 18:08, 17 August 2018 (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. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.76.99.169 (talk) 20:30, 1 September 2012 (UTC)

Hair
Does this mammal have hair? - 71.179.116.8 (talk) 02:38, 18 November 2012 (UTC)


 * No. Anaxial (talk) 06:37, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Species of Porpoise Addition to Article
There are seven recognized species of Porpoise.

Tell me what you think, either on this talk page, or on my talk page Dunkleosteus77 (talk) 04:34, 19 April 2015 (UTC) I'll just add now; if you remove, please tell me why so I can make adjustments Dunkleosteus77 (talk) 17:02, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

Plagiarism?
User:01A ext2015, the information you have added reads awkwardly. Also, you did not provide relevant citations.

There are some passages that read really weirdly.
 * In the case of a species such as the harbor seal... shows that this specific kind of dolphin
 * The harbor dolphin will start to act eradicate when introduced to a frequency
 * when the noise stopped the dolphin relaxed and when back to a normal pace. This is a perfect example of a porpoise's situational intelligence

There are also, actually were also, many sentences that said "we researched", and, "our research", as well as opinions like "they should", which implies either original research or plagiarism.

Also, in the editor's perspective, it look like it's been copy/pasted from some other source, since it doesn't go all the way to the end of the line, it just goes to the next line at awkward point. For example (I've removed the following passage):

"For the conservation of endangered animals to be effective, information on population distribution and abundance requires regular updating from census efforts. The Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) has recently been reclassified as critically endangered (CR) due to a rapid decline in abundance. Baseline measures currently used for identifying extinction risk and implementing conservation actions may lag behind the actual demographic trend of a population and, thus, should be updated frequently..."

User:01A ext2015, did you plagiarize the material you added?

For now, I'm going to delete or majorly shorten any material you have added. Dunkleosteus77  (push to talk)  21:05, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Porpoise in a grave
Recently a porpoise was discovered in a grave, somewhere during medieval days. It's a recent discovery but perhaps wikipedia could also bring this somewhere, and then perhaps either link to the article; or add a parapgraph here. I actually came to this site just now in order to find out whether something has been written about that medieval porpoise. 2A02:8388:1603:CB00:3AD5:47FF:FE18:CC7F (talk) 17:04, 21 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Do you have a link to the source or a citation for a paper source? Peaceray (talk) 21:17, 21 September 2017 (UTC)

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Can dolphins communicate with porpoises?
It was on the news tonight (August 29 2018) that a solitary dolphin found its way to a group of porpoises and began communicating with them. If any one knows about whether dolphins can communicate with porpoises, this could go in the article. Vorbee (talk) 19:43, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

"Porpoises along with whales and dolphins"
This sentence is wrong. Propoised and dolphins are both whales — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.23.239.68 (talk) 16:50, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

Move general content to general pages?
There is a lot of information not specific to porpoises, which really don't belong on a porpoise page, but should be moved to pages on Cetaceans and Odontocetes. Agree? JakobT (talk) 08:59, 10 July 2020 (UTC) Some of the issues may come from the reference to older literature, where, especially in the US, dolphin were often referred to as porpoises. Certainly true for the reference to bycatch in the tuna fisheries. JakobT (talk) 08:50, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

Intelligence
We need some info about his intelligent porpoises are. I've just read that they're more intelligent than dogs, but the source isn't suitable for an encyclopaedia. Richard75 (talk) 00:50, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Are they more closely related to narwhals and belugas than to the true dolphins?
That part doesn't have a source, and OneZoom says otherwise. Can someone either find a source or fix that? — DanielLC 21:48, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Surprising perhaps, but the close relationship between the two groups is well documented by anatomy and molecular phylogeny. Added most recent reference I could find.JakobT (talk) 07:27, 12 February 2021 (UTC)