Marine Mammals' Greatest Hits

Marine mammals are the most vocal animals in the ocean, and the subject of extensive study by scientists. Most of us may be familiar with the echolocation clicks and squeals of dolphins, and perhaps can even hum a bar or two of a humpback whale's song (~780K).

But there are over a hundred species of marine mammals, and as you will see from the following playlist, each has its own unique sound:

• Two different Inia geoffrensis (~320K)
• Delphinus bairdi (a.k.a. common or saddleback dolphin) (~280K)
• Twenty Delphinus delphis (a.k.a. common or saddleback dolphin) (~260K)
• About 200 Stenella styx (~390K)
• Two or three dozen Stenella plagiodon (~290K)
• Tursiops truncatus--with snapping shrimp heard in the background (~200K)
• About 300 Lagenorhynchus acutus (a.k.a. white-sided porpoise) (~275K)
• Thirty Lagenorhynchus albirostris (a.k.a. white nose or white-beaked porpoise) (~200K)
• Pseudorca crassidens--a relative of the killer whale (~450K)
• About 90 Globicephala melaena (a.k.a. pothead, blackfish, or pilot whale) (~320K)
• Twenty Globicephala macrorhyncha (a.k.a. pothead, blackfish, or pilot whale) (~240K)
• Globicephala scammoni (a.k.a. pothead, blackfish, or pilot whale) (~250K)
• About 40 or 50 Grampus griseus (~320K)
• The first recording of an identified species: Delphinapterous leucas (a.k.a. beluka or white whale and "sea canary") recorded in 1949 (~500K)
• Pod of seven Physeter catodon (a.k.a. sperm whale) (~180K)
• Eubalaena glacialis (a.k.a. right whale)
• Megaptera novaeangliae (a.k.a. humpback whale) (~210K)