Fun with Quizzes

Are you a Cetacean expert?

Instructions
To pass the test you must answer correctly at least 7 questions out of 10. For each question, one or more answers can be correct and you need to select all the correct options to score a point. Test evaluation is immediate and does not require you to provide any personal data.

1.

In presence of a stranded cetacean, the following actions should be taken:

Gently try to drag the whale or dolphin back to the water

Immediately call the local authorities and experts

Keep the skin of the animal wet

Carefully try to keep the blowhole (or blowholes) free of sand or other materials

2.

Which of the following assertions about the Sperm whale are true?

Its blow is unique in being projected forward and on the left

It belongs to the suborder Odontoceti

It can dive as deep as 2000 metres (6000 feet)

There is an organ in its head called Spermaceti, containing huge amounts of a waxy substance (which has nothing to do with sperm, though)

3.

Talking about evolution, the reason(s) why Cetaceans have almost completely lost their body hair since the time they were land mammals is (are):

Life in the ocean is so psychologically stressful

A fur is not as effective to keep a body warm in the water as it is on land

To increase streamlining

To avoid looking like seals and being hunted

4.

All cetaceans are:

Warm-blooded mammals

Air-breathing animals

Filter feeders

Fish eaters

5.

Cetaceans can keep their body warm in the water by means of:

A thick layer of proteins under their skin, called blubber

A huge production of heat, due to constant swimming

A thick layer of fat under their skin, called blubber

A special countercurrent blood-vessel system, which limits the quantity of heat lost from their flukes and flippers

6.

The number of blowholes in Odontoceti is:

Two

One or two, depending on the species

One

Always one, except the Sperm whale which has two

7.

The reason(s) why cetaceans look more like fish than land mammals is (are):

Interspecific breeding

By coincidence

Convergent evolution

Divergent involution

8.

Which of the following cetacean species do not have a dorsal fin?

Gray whale

Beluga

Minke whale

Southern Right whale

9.

Which species among the following has disappeared from the North Atlantic due to whaling?

Gray whale

Narwhal

Common dolphin

Vaquita

10.

Which of the following cetaceans can reach speeds of over 30 km/h?

Southern Right whale

Bottlenose dolphin

Humpback whale

Dall's porpoise