Family MONODONTIDAE

(NARWHAL AND BELUGA)

• Medium-sized toothed whales, with blunt heads, fusiform bodies narrowing toward tails, short beaks, mouths curving upward toward eyes, and no dorsal fins; rostrums have globe-like melons containing fatty tissue used in echolocation.

• 300-500 cm.

Arctic and subarctic regions.

Circumpolar, mainly Arctic andsubarctic seas.

2 genera, 2 species, 2 taxa.

No species threatened; none Extinct since 1600.