title: Natalya Neidhart

text: After a three-month absence from television, Natalya returned on the September 21, 2015, episode of "Raw", as a face, confronting the villainous Paige over her actions during Charlotte's WWE Divas Championship celebration. Later that evening, she was defeated by Naomi in a singles match. After multiple confrontations between the two, Natalya would defeat Paige on the October 5 episode of "Raw". Three days later, on "SmackDown", Natalya teamed with Becky Lynch and Charlotte the three defeated Team Bella (Alicia Fox, Brie Bella, and Nikki Bella). On the October 15 episode of "Smackdown", while Paige saved Charlotte and Becky from an attack by Team Bella, Natalya, after a backstage altercation with Paige, would be attacked. In the end of October, Natalya started a feud with Team B.A.D. (Naomi, Tamina and Sasha Banks), after the three distracted her during her match with Paige, and attacked her, but Natalya went on to gain revenge over the team by defeating Naomi and Tamina in two singles matches before the feud quietly ended.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: In January 2016, Natalya revealed that she had been working through a broken ankle, which was mistaken for a simple sprain and after two months of inactivity, she made her official return during a live event on January 3. Few weeks later, Natalya returned to WWE television, on the January 18 episode of "Raw", where she defeated Brie Bella, with her former rival Paige in her corner.<ref name="WWE Raw 18/01/16"></ref> Upon her return, Natalya started competing in various singles and tag team matches, ending on both winning and losing sides.<ref name="WWE Smackdown 2/18/16"></ref> On March 12, at Roadblock, Natalya unsuccessfully challenged Charlotte for the Divas Championship.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: On the March 22 episode of "Main Event", alongside Alicia Fox she accompanied Paige to her match against Naomi, accompanied by Tamina and Lana. Later in the match, she and Fox were viciously attacked by Summer Rae and a returning Emma, distracting Paige as they aligned themselves with Lana and Team B.A.D.<ref name="Main Event 22/3/16"></ref> The following week, she along with Brie Bella and Alicia Fox accompanied Paige to her match against Emma on the March 28 episode of "Raw", where she was defeated after Lana attacked Paige. Post-match, she along her allies were attacked by Emma, Summer Rae, Lana, Tamina and Naomi, before they were saved by a returning Eva Marie.<ref name="Raw 28/03/16"></ref> As a result, Natalya's Total Divas team (also including Brie, Alicia Fox, Eva Marie and Paige) faced the newly dubbed team B.A.D. & Blonde (Naomi, Tamina, Lana, Emma, and Summer Rae) in a 10-Diva tag team match at WrestleMania 32's pre-show. Natalya's team won after Naomi submitted to Brie Bella. After confronting Charlotte during her championship celebration the following night, she challenged Charlotte to a championship match on the April 11 episode of "Raw", in which she was unsuccessful in capturing the WWE Women's Championship. On the April 18 episode of "Raw", Natalya confronted Charlotte during an interview and revealed that Shane McMahon had booked them in a rematch for the Women's Championship at Payback and that her uncle Bret Hart will be at her corner. At the event, she was defeated after match referee Charles Robinson, ended the match as Charlotte held her in the Sharpshooter submission hold, Natalya's signature finishing move, even though she had not submitted making reference to the infamous "shoot screwjob" the Montreal Screwjob. After the match, both Natalya and Hart applied their finishing maneuver the "Sharpshooter" on Charlotte and Ric Flair. The following month at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, she was once again defeated by Charlotte in a submission match in which Ric Flair was banned from ringside, however, she was helped by Dana Brooke while dressed as Flair allowing Charlotte to get the victory.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: On June 19 at Money In The Bank, Natalya teamed with Becky Lynch in a losing effort against Charlotte and Dana Brooke. After the match, Natalya attacked Becky, turning into a villainess for the first time since 2012. Followed by multiple continuous attacks between both women, Natalya defeated Becky in a match at Battleground.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: On July 19, Natalya was drafted to SmackDown as part of the 2016 WWE draft.<ref name="SmackDown 19/07/16"></ref> She made her first appearance for the brand on the July 26 episode of "SmackDown", losing against Becky Lynch.<ref name="Smackdown 26/07/16"></ref> On the August 9 episode of "SmackDown", Natalya competed in a losing effort against Carmella. The following week, Natalya teamed with Alexa Bliss in a losing effort against the team of Carmella, and Becky Lynch, after a distraction provided by Eva Marie and Naomi, At SummerSlam, Natalya teamed with Alexa Bliss and the returning Nikki Bella (who replaced the suspended Eva Marie) against Naomi, Lynch, and Carmella in a six-woman tag team match. Nikki Bella pinned Carmella to score the victory for Natalya's team. At Backlash, Natalya competed in a six-pack elimination challenge to determine the inaugural SmackDown Women's Champion and was eliminated by Nikki Bella.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: On the October 25 episode of "SmackDown", Natalya lost against Nikki Bella in a match to determine the captain of the SmackDown women's team at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. However, after Nikki had been attacked backstage before the match, Natalya replaced Nikki but led her team to defeat. At the pay-per-view, Carmella accused Natalya of having been Nikki's attacker at Survivor Series; Natalya denied this for weeks before attacking Carmella on the December 20 episode of "SmackDown" and admitting to having attacked Nikki, revealing her pent-up jealousy of Bella's success over the years. Natalya and Nikki were set to compete in a match on the January 10, 2017, episode of "SmackDown", but the match never officially started due a brawl between the two, where referees came in to break them up. At the Royal Rumble pay-per-view on January 29, Natalya competed in a six-woman tag team match alongside Alexa Bliss and Mickie James against Nikki, Naomi, and Becky Lynch, where her team was defeated after Naomi pinned Bliss. On February 12 at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Natalya faced Nikki in singles competition, which ended in a double count-out. The feud culminated in a Falls Count Anywhere match on the February 21 episode of "SmackDown", in which Natalya was victorious after an interference from Maryse. On June 18 at Money in the Bank, Natalya competed in the inaugural women's Money in the Bank ladder match, which was won by Carmella following an interference by James Ellsworth.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: On July 23, Natalya defeated Flair, Lynch, Tamina, and Lana in a five-way elimination match at Battleground, earning an opportunity to face Naomi for the SmackDown Women's Championship at SummerSlam on August 20. At the event, Natalya defeated Naomi to capture the SmackDown Women's Championship. With this victory, Natalya became the first woman to hold both the Divas Championship and the SmackDown Women's Championship.<ref name="SummerSlam20/08/17"></ref> On the September 12 episode of "SmackDown", Natalya made her first successful title defense in a rematch against Naomi. At Hell in a Cell on October 8, Natalya defended her championship against Charlotte Flair, which resulted into a disqualification loss after she attacked Flair with a chair. On November 14 episode of "SmackDown", she dropped the title to Charlotte, losing by submission, and hereby ending her reign at 86 days. Natalya then competed at Survivor Series along with Becky Lynch, Tamina Snuka, Naomi and Carmella as a part of Team Smackdown against Team Raw in a losing effort. Natalya received her Smackdown Women's Championship rematch at Clash of Champions, but was unsuccessful against Flair in a lumberjack match.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: At the 2018 Royal Rumble, Natalya participated in the first Women's Royal Rumble Match; she entered at number 18 but was eliminated by Trish Stratus. At Fastlane, Carmella and Natalya defeated Naomi and Becky Lynch after Carmella pinned Becky.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: On the April 16, 2018, episode of "Raw", Natalya was once again drafted to Raw and became a fan favorite for the first time since June 2016. In her first match, she defeated Mandy Rose, but after the match, both Rose and Sonya Deville attacked her before Ronda Rousey made the save. Shortly after that scene, Natalya was placed in a storyline with Rousey as she was revealed to be her training partner and friend. In June, Natalya competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match for the third time in her career, however, at the event, the match was ultimately won by Alexa Bliss. Throughout the following months, Natalya continued to compete in various singles and tag team matches and also worked as a manager for both Nia Jax and Ronda Rousey in some of their matches against Alexa Bliss to avoid Mickie James' interference.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: In October, Natalya joined forces with Sasha Banks and Bayley against The Riott Squad (Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan and Ruby Riott) which led to a six–woman tag team match at the first ever all women's pay–per–view, Evolution, where Natalya, Banks and Bayley were victorious. Shortly after the event, Natalya continued her feud with Ruby Riott after the latter broke the "glasses" of Natalya's recently deceased father. During that time, both women were announced as the final members of Team Raw for the interbrand women's traditional five–on–five tag team elimination match, however, they were eventually removed from the match as they brawled just before Survivor Series started. On the December 3 episode of "Raw", in what was supposed to be a tag team match pitting Natalya and Ronda Rousey against Nia Jax and Tamina, The Riott Squad attacked Natalya and put her through a table while Jax and Tamina cornered Rousey to prevent her from helping. This led to a tables match between Ruby Riott and Natalya at the event, where Natalya gained revenge and defeated Riott after powerbombing her from the top rope through a table. On the December 24 episode of "Raw", after she won an eight-woman gauntlet match to become the number one contender a week prior, Natalya faced Rousey for her Raw Women's Championship, however, she was unsuccessful in winning the match and the title. On January 27, 2019, at the 2019 Royal Rumble, Natalya entered the second women's Royal Rumble match at number 2, lasting 56:01 (surpassing Sasha Banks' previous record set in 2018), and eliminated Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan, before she was eliminated by Nia Jax.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: At Fastlane, Natalya reunited her team with Beth Phoenix, known as The Divas of Doom, after the two were attacked by Nia Jax and Tamina. The Divas of Doom took part of a fatal four-way tag team match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 35 on April 7, however, the match was won by The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce).


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: In May, Natalya competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match at the namesake pay–per–view, where she was unsuccessful in winning the match. In June, Natalya and Alexa Bliss were supposed to compete in an late addition match at the Super Show-Down pay–per–view in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, however, the match was rejected by the Saudi Arabian government just before the show started due to the suppression of women's rights. On July 15's edition of "Raw", Natalya won a fatal four-way elimination match to become the #1 contender for Becky Lynch's Raw Women's Championship. At SummerSlam, Natalya was unsuccessful in winning the Raw Women's title from Lynch in a Submission match. She got an injured shoulder, and came out on "Raw" wearing a cast, when she was then subjected to a brutal assault from the returning Sasha Banks, whom Natalya considered a friend. Natalya was defeated by Banks on August 26 edition of "Raw". Natalya later began feuding with Lacey Evans, exchanging victories and losses, before defeating her in a last woman standing match. The pair later took on the Kabuki Warriors in a losing effort. Natalya defeated Evans again at Crown Jewel, which was the first ever women's match to take place in Saudi Arabia. On the second night of WrestleMania 36 on April 5, 2020, she lost to Liv Morgan in the pre-show.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: On the June 15 episode of "Raw", Natalya and Liv Morgan lost to The IIconics. Afterward, Natalya began turning heel by ripping on Morgan and claiming that she had been given no respect, with Lana venting her frustrations to Natalya afterward. On the June 22 episode of "Raw", Natalya turned heel for the first time since 2018, when she solidified her alliance with Lana and defeated Morgan by submission.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: As part of the 2020 Draft in October, Natalya was drafted to the SmackDown brand. In January 2021, Natalya formed an alliance with Tamina while putting the women's tag team division on notice. On the January 30 episode of WWE Backstage, the two allies were forced to face each other in a match to determine who would be the number 30 entrant at the Royal Rumble, in which Natalya won, earning her spot. Natalya and Tamina won a Tag Team Turmoil Match on the first night of WrestleMania 37 for an opportunity to face Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship on the second night. However, they failed to win the titles. On the May 14 episode of "SmackDown", she and Tamina would defeat Baszler and Jax to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. On the September 20 episode of "Raw", they lost the titles to Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: As part of the 2021 Draft, Tamina was drafted to the Raw brand while Natalya remained on the SmackDown brand, ending the team. In October, Natalya entered the Queen's Crown tournament, where she lost to Doudrop in the first round. She participated in the Royal Rumble match at the namesake event on January 19, 2022, entering at #24 and eliminating Tamina and Summer Rae, but was eliminated by Bianca Belair. In March, Natalya began teaming with Shayna Baszler, challenging for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship; this led to a fatal four-way tag team match for the titles on the second night of WrestleMania 38, which was won by Sasha Banks and Naomi. On the June 3 episode of "SmackDown", Natalya won a six-pack challenge for the opportunity to face Ronda Rousey for the SmackDown Women's Championship at Money in the Bank, but failed to win the title.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: Beginning in October 2017, Neidhart writes a weekly column that appears in the "Calgary Sun" and "Edmonton Sun", detailing her life and career.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: Neidhart has known TJ Wilson since she was 12 years old, and they began dating in November 2001. The pair married on June 26, 2013. Their wedding was featured on the first season of "Total Divas". She also owns a home in Calgary.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: On October 1, 2016, Neidhart had her two front teeth knocked out during a house show match in Las Vegas, Nevada. Natalya has vision issues in her left eye.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: Neidhart's father, Jim Neidhart, died on August 13, 2018. He was a featured guest in several seasons of "Total Divas".


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: Natalya appeared alongside Paige, Brie Bella and the Chrisley family on the 88th Academy Awards edition of "E! Countdown to the Red Carpet" in February 2016.


title: Natalya Neidhart

text: Natalya has appeared in thirteen WWE video games. She made her in-game debut in "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010" and appears in "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011", "WWE '12", "WWE '13" (DLC), "WWE 2K14", "WWE 2K15", "WWE 2K16", "WWE 2K17", "WWE 2K18", "WWE 2K19", "WWE 2K20", "WWE 2K Battlegrounds" and "WWE 2K22".


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: The 2021–22 season was Manchester United's 30th season in the Premier League and their 47th consecutive season in the top flight of English football. United finished sixth in the Premier League, and were knocked out of the EFL Cup in the third round and the FA Cup in the fourth round, as well as reaching the UEFA Champions League round of 16.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: In August 2021, Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the club from Juventus after 12 years away, having left for Real Madrid in 2009 for a world record transfer fee.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: On 21 November 2021, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær was sacked and replaced as caretaker by first-team coach Michael Carrick. Eight days later, Ralf Rangnick was appointed as interim manager until the end of the season, taking charge officially on 3 December. Erik ten Hag was appointed as Solskjær's permanent successor on 21 April 2022, to take over from the end of this season.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: This was United's fifth trophyless season in a row, their longest since a run of six between 1968–69 and 1973–74.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Manchester United did not go on an overseas tour in the 2021–22 pre-season. Instead, they played matches in England, beginning with an away match against Championship side Derby County – managed by United's record goalscorer, Wayne Rooney – on 18 July 2021. Tahith Chong, who was playing despite having agreed to join Birmingham City on loan for the season, scored the first goal in the 18th minute. He was substituted at half-time by Facundo Pellistri, who added a second on the hour mark. Colin Kazim-Richards pulled a goal back for Derby, but United held on to win 2–1. United's next game was against Queens Park Rangers on 24 July. Jesse Lingard opened the scoring in the third minute, but Charlie Austin equalised four minutes later. QPR then scored three goals in the space of eight minutes in the second half to give them a 4–1 lead with half an hour to play. Anthony Elanga pulled a goal back for Manchester United in the 73rd minute, but it was not enough to prevent defeat.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: On 28 July, United returned to Old Trafford to play Premier League debutants Brentford. Elanga scored his second goal in two games in the 12th minute, only for Shandon Baptiste to equalise eight minutes later. Andreas Pereira then put United in front again with a volley from 25 yards out that went in off the underside of the crossbar; however, Bryan Mbeumo equalised for Brentford with 12 minutes left to play, and the visitors left with a draw. United were scheduled to play an away game against another Championship club, Preston North End, on 31 July, but the match was cancelled due to a number of suspected positive COVID-19 tests within the Manchester United team. The final pre-season game was at home to fellow Premier League side Everton on 7 August; United were 3–0 up by half-time via goals from Mason Greenwood, Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes, before Diogo Dalot scored a fourth in the second half.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: The league season started with a home match against Roses rival Leeds United on 14 August 2021. Bruno Fernandes scored a hat-trick, and Mason Greenwood and Fred scored the other two goals in a 5–1 win, as Paul Pogba equalled a Premier League record with four assists. Luke Ayling scored the only goal for the visitors. The following week, United travelled to face Southampton, and went behind on the half-hour mark, when Fred deflected Ché Adams' shot past David de Gea for an own goal. Greenwood equalised 10 minutes into the second half, but United were unable to find a winner and the game finished 1–1, extending United's unbeaten away run to 27 league matches, equalling the record set by Arsenal in 2004. That record was broken the following week, when on 29 August 2021, United travelled to face Wolverhampton Wanderers in the final match before the first international break of the season. Raphaël Varane made his debut following his move from Real Madrid, and provided the assist as Greenwood scored the only goal of the game to secure a 1–0 win.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: United's first game after the international break was at home to Newcastle United on 11 September and marked Cristiano Ronaldo's second debut for the club after re-signing from Juventus. It took him until injury time at the end of the first half to open the scoring, turning home the rebound after Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman spilled a long-range shot from Greenwood. Javier Manquillo equalised for Newcastle in the 56th minute, but Ronaldo restored United's lead six minutes later with a shot through Woodman's legs following a through-ball from Luke Shaw. Fernandes then scored a third with a long-range strike 10 minutes from full time, before Jesse Lingard scored his first goal for the club since August 2020, as United won 4–1 to return to the top of the table. In the next match away to West Ham United on 19 September, United went behind on the half-hour when a shot from Saïd Benrahma was deflected past De Gea off Varane; however, less than five minutes later, Ronaldo scored the equaliser, following up after his original shot was saved by Łukasz Fabiański. A minute from the end of normal time, Lingard put United in front with a curling shot into the top corner from just inside the penalty area, but deep into injury time, West Ham were awarded a penalty after Shaw was deemed to have handled the ball in his own area. Mark Noble was brought on specifically to take the kick, but De Gea dived the right way to make the save; it was his first penalty save in the league since October 2014. United then played host to Aston Villa on 25 September, and lost defenders Harry Maguire and Shaw to injury either side of half-time. The match remained goalless until the 88th minute, when Kortney Hause headed in a corner. The Villa defender then gave away a penalty in injury time when he handled the ball after an Edinson Cavani flick-on; however, Fernandes' shot went over the bar, giving Villa their first win at Old Trafford in any competition since December 2009.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: United took the lead just before half-time in their first fixture in October, at home to Everton, when Anthony Martial scored his first club goal since the 9–0 win over Southampton in February; however, Andros Townsend equalised for the visitors 20 minutes into the second half. Yerry Mina thought he had scored the winning goal in the 86th minute, but it was ruled out for offside by the video assistant referee (VAR). Following the international break, United travelled to the King Power Stadium two weeks later to face Leicester City. Greenwood opened the scoring, but Youri Tielemans pulled Leicester level just after the half-hour, before Çağlar Söyüncü put them in front with 12 minutes to go in the match. Marcus Rashford levelled the score again in his first appearance since the UEFA Euro 2020 Final, but Jamie Vardy restored Leicester's lead a minute later and Patson Daka added a fourth in injury time to end United's record-breaking away Premier League unbeaten streak at 29. The following week, United hosted arch-rivals Liverpool; Naby Keïta opened the scoring in the fifth minute, before Diogo Jota doubled the lead eight minutes later. Mohamed Salah scored two more before half-time to put United four goals down at the break for only the second time in a Premier League game, before completing his hat-trick five minutes into the second half. Pogba was then sent off for a two-footed tackle on Keïta as United suffered their worst ever home defeat to Liverpool. With United on the verge of losing three league games in a row for the first time since December 2015, they travelled to play Tottenham Hotspur on 30 October. Playing with five at the back following the return of Varane from injury and with Cavani starting up front alongside Ronaldo, United won the match 3–0. Ronaldo opened the scoring six minutes before half-time before providing an assist for Cavani's first goal of the season almost 20 minutes into the second half, and Rashford completed the scoring four minutes from the end.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: November began with Manchester United playing host to their local rivals Manchester City at Old Trafford. Eric Bailly started in place of Varane, who had been injured in the Champions League match against Atalanta four days earlier, and it was the Ivorian defender who opened the scoring, albeit for the away side, as he put João Cancelo's cross into his own net. Bernardo Silva doubled City's lead just before half-time, when Bailly was substituted by Jadon Sancho. City remained the more likely of the two sides to score in the second half, but De Gea was able to keep them out for the remainder of the game, and United went into the international break nine points behind league leaders Chelsea as City won a league match against United for the first time since 24 April 2019. On 20 November 2021, United suffered a 4–1 defeat to newly promoted Watford, leaving the Red Devils seventh in the table. United academy graduate Joshua King opened the scoring before De Gea saved a penalty from Ismaïla Sarr (as well as the original, which had to be retaken for encroachment); however, Sarr did eventually score just before half-time. Donny van de Beek scored his first goal of the season five minutes into the second half, but Maguire was sent off for a second yellow card midway through the period. As United searched for an equaliser, João Pedro and Emmanuel Dennis scored in added time to confirm Watford's victory. It was announced the following day that Solskjær had left his role by mutual consent and that Michael Carrick had replaced him as caretaker manager. In Carrick's first Premier League match in charge, which made him the first English manager to lead United in a league match since Ron Atkinson in November 1986, United visited Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. United opened the scoring after Jorginho miscontrolled a long clearance from Fernandes, allowing Sancho to take advantage of a two-on-one with Édouard Mendy and score his first league goal for United; however, Jorginho made up for his mistake from the penalty spot, after Aaron Wan-Bissaka had fouled Thiago Silva in the penalty area, and the match finished 1–1, making Chelsea still seeking their first league win against United since November 2017.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: United began December with a home encounter against old foes Arsenal. Emile Smith Rowe opened the scoring for Arsenal in the 13th minute with a volley from just outside the penalty area while De Gea lay injured in the middle of the goal after Fred had trodden on his ankle. After a VAR check, the goal was given after initially being disallowed. United equalised 31 minutes later when Fernandes scored for the first time in nearly three months. Ronaldo slotted home seven minutes after the break to bring United into the lead, scoring his 800th career goal in the process. Martin Ødegaard drew Arsenal level again two minutes later before giving away a penalty with a foul on Fred. Ronaldo sent the penalty down the middle of the goal to give United their first league win against Arsenal since 2018. Carrick left the club immediately after the match, and Ralf Rangnick took over for the game against Crystal Palace on 5 December, having been waiting to receive his work permit since his appointment on 29 November. United won 1–0 thanks to a goal from Fred in the 77th minute, and kept their first clean sheet at home in the league since beating West Ham 1–0 on 14 March. In their next match, United visited Norwich City and won 1–0 thanks to a penalty from Ronaldo in the 75th minute. Due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the United camp, the club's training ground was closed on 13 December for 24 hours and the match against Brentford scheduled for the next day was postponed; on 16 December, the home match against Brighton & Hove Albion was also postponed. The team played their first match post-outbreak on 27 December away to Newcastle. Allan Saint-Maximin scored within seven minutes before Cavani equalised in the second half. Three days later, United played the last Premier League match of 2021 against Burnley at home. Scott McTominay scored his first goal in nearly 11 months inside seven minutes. Ben Mee then scored an own goal after deflecting Sancho's shot slightly into the net. Ronaldo then scored the third goal three minutes before Aaron Lennon scored his first ever goal against United at the 38th minute as the hosts won 3–1 and finished the year in sixth place.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: United started the year at home to Wolverhampton. Phil Jones was included in the starting line-up, playing a senior match for the first time in 23 months. Ronaldo's header was disallowed for offside before João Moutinho scored the winner at the 82nd minute to earn Wolves their first win at Old Trafford since 9 February 1980, when Wolverhampton also won 1–0. Twelve days later, they played away to Aston Villa. Fernandes scored twice to give United a 2–0 lead, before Jacob Ramsey scored the first on the 77th minute and assisted the equaliser for substitute Philippe Coutinho, who scored in the 81st minute to mark his Villa debut. The postponed match against Brentford was held on 19 January; Anthony Elanga scored his first competitive goal of the season seven minutes before Greenwood scored his first league goal since the defeat at Leicester on 16 October. Fifteen minutes later, Rashford made his first goal in all competitions since scoring at Tottenham on 30 October, eight minutes before Ivan Toney scored the consolation for the hosts as United became the first ever club to win 300 Premier League away matches. On 22 January, West Ham came to visit in United's final game prior to the Premier League winter break which took place during the non-European international break. Rashford scored the winning goal with just seconds of added time to go following an onside positioning and assist from Cavani.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: Visiting Burnley on 8 February, United went ahead at 12th minute via Varane but the goal was ruled out after Maguire fouled Jay Rodriguez in the build-up. Six minutes later, they went ahead for real as Paul Pogba scored his first goal of the season following a pass from Shaw. An own goal from Josh Brownhill was disallowed before Rodriguez then levelled the score just two minutes into the second half with an assist from Wout Weghorst. The next match saw Southampton's visit to Old Trafford for the first time since the 0–9 defeat a year and 10 days prior. Sancho opened the scoring in the first half but United conceded an early second half goal again as Ché Adams levelled in the 48th minute. In the midweek United played at home against Brighton, a match that was postponed from December. After a goalless first half, Ronaldo scored his first goal in the new year following an assist from McTominay. Fernandes later scored a very late goal – his first at home this year, sealing the win for the hosts. Five days later, United visited Elland Road to face Roses rival Leeds. Maguire and Fernandes put the visitors two ahead in the first half before Rodrigo and Raphinha – the latter following an assist from former United player Daniel James – equalised via goals at the 53rd and 54th minutes. Two substitutes later scored the winners for Manchester United through Fred and Elanga as United scored more than three goals for the first time since September's win against Newcastle and the first time in the season that it was done away from home. Six days later United hosted Watford but eventually got their first goalless draw of the season.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: United opened March with a visit to the City of Manchester Stadium for the Manchester derby. It took only five minutes for the league champions to score via Kevin De Bruyne. City academy graduate Sancho then equalised on his first match at City since his departure to Borussia Dortmund. However De Bruyne scored again six minutes later to hand City a half-time lead. Riyad Mahrez scored at 68th and 90th minutes to finish the match 4–1. This was the first time since 2018–19 league season that City won home and away against United, United's first defeat at City since 11 November 2018, and their heaviest away defeat against City since the 2013–14 season, when they were defeated by the same scoreline. On the next match against Tottenham Hotspur, Ronaldo scored his only second ever hat-trick for United, and the first since January 2008. Each of his goals sandwiched Harry Kane's 35th-minute penalty and Maguire's 72nd-minute own goal.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: On 2 April, United faced Leicester at home. Kelechi Iheanacho struck first three minutes before Fred's equaliser. The next week, a single goal from Anthony Gordon secured a 1–0 win for the relegation-threatened Everton. Seven days later, Ronaldo scored two before goals from Kieran Dowell and Teemu Pukki equalised for Norwich. A Ronaldo free-kick secured his hat-trick and a 3–2 win. The following week, United lost 4–0 to rivals Liverpool on the Tuesday – Luis Díaz and Sadio Mané scored once each and Salah scored two – and 3–1 to Arsenal on the Saturday, in which Ronaldo scored his 100th Premier League goal; however, it was not enough to earn a point due to the goals from Nuno Tavares, Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka, as well as a missed penalty by Fernandes. United lost four straight away league matches for the first time since the 1980–81 season as a result. The last match of the month saw Chelsea came to visit. Marcos Alonso scored for the world champions at the hour mark before Ronaldo equalised and salvaged one point for United. The draw extended United's unbeaten league run against Chelsea, with the last time Chelsea won over United in the league was on 5 November 2017. However, with a maximum of nine points from three remaining games having just earned 55, United were assured of a maximum 64 points, which was already their lowest in the Premier League era, earned in the 2013–14 season. They also required to win all those three games to avoid a club record for the fewest wins in a Premier League season, set at 18 in 2016–17 and 2019–20.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: In United's last home game of the season on 2 May against Brentford, Fernandes scored his 50th goal for the club after just nine minutes. Ronaldo scored a penalty before Varane sealed a 3–0 win with his first United goal. The next match saw United suffer their worst ever defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion by a score of 4–0, which meant they failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in three years. Moisés Caicedo, Marc Cucurella, Pascal Groß and Leandro Trossard scored one each without any reply as United broke the club record for fewest wins in a Premier League season. On the last match of the season, former United player Wilfried Zaha scored the game's only goal for Crystal Palace as United lost at Palace for the first time since May 1991. With 16 wins, 58 points, and a goal difference of zero, this was United's worst season since recording 13 wins, 48 points, and a −1 goal difference in 1989–90, when they finished 13th. With 57 goals conceded, this was the most since the 63 they conceded in 1978–79 season.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: As a Premier League side, Manchester United entered the FA Cup in the Third Round Proper. The draw took place on 6 December, and United were given a home draw with Aston Villa. The match was played on 10 January 2022. Villa had two goals disallowed for offside as Scott McTominay scored the only goal in a 1–0 win for United. United drew Championship side Middlesbrough in the Fourth Round Proper. Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty five minutes before Jadon Sancho opened the scoring. A handball by former United academy player Duncan Watmore was correctly ruled accidental by referee Anthony Taylor and video assistant referee Stuart Attwell per the new IFAB rule, meaning the 64th-minute equaliser from Matt Crooks, who also formerly a United academy player, stood. After going through extra time, United and Middlesbrough scored all their first seven penalties in the shoot-out, including one from former United defender Paddy McNair. Lee Peltier scored the eighth penalty before Anthony Elanga missed his and condemned United to their earliest FA Cup exit since the third round defeat in the 2013–14 season and the first time in the fourth round since 2011–12. This was also United's first FA Cup elimination by a lower division side since their elimination by Leeds United, then a Championship side as well, in the 2009–10 third round and the first FA Cup defeat on penalties since the 2008–09 semi-finals, as they are yet to win an FA Cup match shoot-out. For Middlesbrough, this was their second consecutive cup triumph over United, having also won on penalties at Old Trafford in the 2015–16 League Cup fourth round.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: As one of the seven English clubs competing in UEFA competitions in 2021–22, United entered the 2021–22 EFL Cup in the third round. The draw took place on 25 August and United were drawn at home to West Ham United; the match was played on 22 September, just three days after the two sides met in the league. Manuel Lanzini scored the only goal of the game in the ninth minute, giving West Ham their first win at Old Trafford in all competitions since the last day of the 2006–07 FA Premier League season. This was Manchester United's first League Cup third round exit since the 2018–19 season.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: Having finished in second place in the 2020–21 Premier League, Manchester United qualified automatically for the group stage of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League. The group stage draw took place on 26 August 2021. They were drawn against Swiss champions Young Boys, Atalanta from Italy and Villarreal of Spain. United had faced Villarreal in the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final, as well as the 2005–06 and 2008–09 Champions League group stages; all ended as draws. United faced Young Boys in the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage, during which United won both matches.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: In the first match, United were away to Young Boys and took the lead in the 13th minute when Cristiano Ronaldo shot through the goalkeeper's legs after a cross from Bruno Fernandes. In the 35th minute, Aaron Wan-Bissaka was sent off for stamping on Christopher Martins' ankle. Moumi Ngamaleu equalised for Young Boys in the 66th minute, before a back-pass from Jesse Lingard in the 95th minute allowed Jordan Pefok to score the winner for the home side. Wan-Bissaka was given a two-match suspension for his red card and missed the next game against Villarreal at Old Trafford, along with fellow defenders Shaw and Maguire. Villarreal's Paco Alcácer opened the scoring in the 53rd minute, United's left-back Alex Telles – starting in place of Shaw – equalised with a long-range shot seven minutes later, scoring his first goal for United. Ronaldo, who broke the record for most Champions League appearances on the night, then scored the winning goal in the fifth minute of added time to give United their first ever win against Villarreal.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: Three weeks later, United hosted Atalanta for the first time at Old Trafford, and the away side were 2–0 up within the first half-hour, as Mario Pašalić scored in the 15th minute before Merih Demiral doubled their lead in the 28th. Marcus Rashford scored eight minutes after the interval to halve the deficit before captain Harry Maguire scored the equaliser with 15 minutes left in normal time. Ronaldo then scored the winner for the second match in a row, heading home Luke Shaw's cross nine minutes from time. United again went behind early in the return match away to Atalanta, as Josip Iličić put the Italian side ahead in the 12th minute. Ronaldo equalised in first-half injury time, assisted by a backheel from Fernandes, making him the first Manchester United player to score in four consecutive Champions League matches since Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2003. Atalanta went back in front just over 10 minutes into the second half through Duván Zapata, only for Ronaldo to score another late goal to save a point for United. United then visited Villarreal in caretaker manager Carrick's first game in charge. Ronaldo opened the scoring 12 minutes from time, before Jadon Sancho scored his first goal for the club as they secured qualification for the round of 16 for the first time since the 2018–19 season. Atalanta's 3–3 draw with Young Boys later that night secured top spot for United. The final group game saw Rangnick change all 11 starters from the league game against Crystal Palace – including Ronaldo who was left out of the matchday squad, denying him the opportunity to become the first player to score in all six Champions League group stage matches for a second time. Rangnick named just seven of a possible 11 substitutes and gave three academy graduates their first-team debuts: Tom Heaton, Zidane Iqbal and Charlie Savage. Another academy graduate Mason Greenwood open the scoring inside nine minutes before Donny van de Beek made a mistake that allowed Fabian Rieder to equalise and end the match at 1–1.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: The draw for the round of 16 was held on 13 December 2021 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Having finishing top of their group, United could be drawn against one of the non-English clubs that finished second in another group: Paris Saint-Germain, Atlético Madrid, Sporting CP, Internazionale, Benfica or Red Bull Salzburg. United were originally drawn against Paris Saint-Germain, whom they had met in the previous season's group stage and in the round of 16 two seasons before that; however, technical issues during the original draw meant it was declared void and would be redone entirely at 15:00 CET. United were then redrawn against Atlético Madrid, who won the only previous meeting between the two clubs in the 1991–92 European Cup Winners' Cup.


title: 2021–22 Manchester United F.C. season

text: On 23 February, United visited the Metropolitano Stadium for the first time ever; the previous meeting between the two having been played at the now-demolished Vicente Calderón Stadium. João Félix opened the scoring for Atlético with a diving header past former Atlético goalkeeper David de Gea in the 7th minute, before Anthony Elanga scored the equaliser following a pass from Bruno Fernandes 10 minutes from time; this made Fernandes the first player in Champions League history to assist in six consecutive appearances for an English club, breaking the record held by David Beckham – also for United – since 1998, while Elanga became United's youngest ever goalscorer in the Champions League knockout stage at 19 years 302 days. In the second leg at home, a 41st-minute header from Renan Lodi was enough to eliminate United in the round of 16 for the first time since the 2017–18 season.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Anthony David Junior Elanga (born 27 April 2002) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Manchester United and the Sweden national team.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga joined the Manchester United youth system aged 12 and won the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award in 2020. He made his senior debut for the club in a Premier League game against Leicester City in May 2021. He represented Sweden at under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels, before making his senior national team debut in 2022.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: After playing for IF Elfsborg and Malmö FF in Sweden, Elanga's family moved to England and settled in Manchester. Elanga briefly played for local club Hattersley, and was scouted by both Manchester City and Manchester United before joining United at the age of 12.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga made his debut for the Manchester United under-18s at the age of 15 in a 2–1 away defeat to Liverpool in April 2018. He signed as an academy scholar at Manchester United in July 2018, and scored four goals in 22 appearances in his first full season playing for the Under-18s.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: The following season, Elanga played twice for the Under-21s in the EFL Trophy, both as a substitute. He finished the COVID-shortened season as the Under-18s' top scorer in the league with 7 goals in 9 appearances, and won the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award. He played four times for the club's under-21 side in the 2020–21 EFL Trophy, scoring twice.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga made his first-team debut for United in a pre-season friendly against Aston Villa ahead of the 2020–21 Premier League season; he came on as a substitute for Marcus Rashford in the 75th minute of a 1–0 defeat. After signing a new long-term contract with the club in March 2021, Elanga was called up to the first team for the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League quarter-final matches against Granada in April 2021, but was an unused substitute in both legs, as well as in the second leg of the semi-final against Roma on 6 May. He made his competitive debut for the club on 11 May in a Premier League match against Leicester City. Elanga was replaced by Marcus Rashford in the 66th minute as United lost 2–1.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga started once again, away to Wolverhampton Wanderers on the final day of the league season and scored his first senior Manchester United goal after just 13 minutes.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga scored his second league goal for Manchester United on 19 January 2022 in a 3–1 away win against Brentford, his first of the season. On 4 February that year, Elanga missed his team's last penalty in a 8–7 shootout against Middlesbrough during their FA Cup tie, knocking Manchester United out of the Cup for the season. In the aftermath of the game, Elanga was subjected to racially abusive messages on social media. On 20 February, in a game against Leeds United, Elanga was hit on the head by an object thrown at him by a spectator. Minutes before the end of the game Elanga scored his second league goal of the season. On 23 February, Elanga scored his first UEFA Champions League goal against Atlético Madrid in the Round of 16 first leg, the final score was 1–1.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga was eligible to play for Sweden, Cameroon or England at international level. He has represented Sweden at under-17, under-19, under-21 and senior levels.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga played five times for the Sweden under-17 team and scored two goals, both against France in the 2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. He played his first game for the Sweden under-21 team and scored one goal in a friendly against Finland on 3 June 2021.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga chose to represent Sweden at a senior level, citing being born and having spent the majority of his life there, as well as the country meaning a lot to him as the reasons behind his decision. He was named in the international squad of Janne Andersson for the World Cup qualifiers against the Czech Republic in March 2022, where he also made his debut as a late-game substitute.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga scored his first goal at senior international level on 5 June 2022 in a 1–2 loss against Norway in a 2022–23 UEFA Nations League B game.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: Elanga's father is the former Cameroon international footballer Joseph Elanga. He was born in the Hyllie ward of Malmö (now part of Väster) in Sweden, when his father was playing for Malmö FF. He is fluent in three languages: Swedish, English and French.


title: Anthony Elanga

text: "Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Elanga goal."


title: Cetacea

text: Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel themselves through the water with powerful up-and-down movement of their tail which ends in a paddle-like fluke, using their flipper-shaped forelimbs to maneuver.


title: Cetacea

text: While the majority of cetaceans live in marine environments, a small number exclusively reside in brackish water or fresh water. Having a cosmopolitan distribution, they can be found in some rivers and all of Earth's oceans, and many species inhabit vast ranges where they migrate with the changing of the seasons.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetaceans are famous for their high intelligence and complex social behaviour as well as for the enormous size of some of the group's members, such as the blue whale which reaches a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 meters (98 feet) and a weight of 173 tonnes (190 short tons), making it the largest animal known to have ever existed.


title: Cetacea

text: There are approximately 89 living species split into two parvorders: Odontoceti or toothed whales (containing porpoises, dolphins, other predatory whales like the beluga and the sperm whale, and the poorly understood beaked whales) and the filter feeding Mysticeti or baleen whales (which includes species like the blue whale, the humpback whale and the bowhead whale). Despite their highly modified bodies and carnivorous lifestyle, genetic and fossil evidence places cetaceans as nested within even-toed ungulates, most closely related to hippopotamus within the clade Whippomorpha.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetaceans have been extensively hunted for their meat, blubber and oil by commercial operations. Although the International Whaling Commission has agreed on putting a halt to commercial whaling, whale hunting is still going on, either under IWC quotas to assist the subsistence of Arctic native people or in the name of scientific research, although a large spectrum of non-lethal methods are now available to study marine mammals in the wild. Cetaceans also face severe environmental hazards from underwater noise pollution, entanglement in abandonned ropes and nets, collisions with ships, plastic and heavy metals build-up, to accelerating climate change, but how much they are affected varies widely from species to species, from minimally in the case of the southern bottlenose whale to the baiji (or Chinese river dolphin) which is considered to be functionally extinct due to human activity.


title: Cetacea

text: The two parvorders, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have diverged around thirty-four million years ago.


title: Cetacea

text: Baleen whales have bristles made of keratin instead of teeth. The bristles filter krill and other small invertebrates from seawater. Grey whales feed on bottom-dwelling mollusks. Rorqual family (balaenopterids) use throat pleats to expand their mouths to take in food and sieve out the water. Balaenids (right whales and bowhead whales) have massive heads that can make up 40% of their body mass. Most mysticetes prefer the food-rich colder waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, migrating to the Equator to give birth. During this process, they are capable of fasting for several months, relying on their fat reserves.


title: Cetacea

text: The parvorder of Odontocetes – the toothed whales – include sperm whales, beaked whales, orcas, dolphins and porpoises. Generally the teeth are designed for catching fish, squid or other marine invertebrates, not for chewing them, so prey is swallowed whole. Teeth are shaped like cones (dolphins and sperm whales), spades (porpoises), pegs (belugas), tusks (narwhals) or variable (beaked whale males). Female beaked whales' teeth are hidden in the gums and are not visible, and most male beaked whales have only two short tusks. Narwhals have vestigial teeth other than their tusk, which is present on males and 15% of females and has millions of nerves to sense water temperature, pressure and salinity. A few toothed whales, such as some orcas, feed on mammals, such as pinnipeds and other whales.


title: Cetacea

text: Toothed whales have well-developed senses – their eyesight and hearing are adapted for both air and water, and they have advanced sonar capabilities using their melon. Their hearing is so well-adapted for both air and water that some blind specimens can survive. Some species, such as sperm whales, are well adapted for diving to great depths. Several species of toothed whales show sexual dimorphism, in which the males differ from the females, usually for purposes of sexual display or aggression.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetacean bodies are generally similar to those of fish, which can be attributed to their lifestyle and the habitat conditions. Their body is well-adapted to their habitat, although they share essential characteristics with other higher mammals (Eutheria).


title: Cetacea

text: They have a streamlined shape, and their forelimbs are flippers. Almost all have a dorsal fin on their backs, but this can take on many forms, depending on the species. A few species, such as the beluga whale, lack them. Both the flipper and the fin are for stabilization and steering in the water.


title: Cetacea

text: The body is wrapped in a thick layer of fat, known as blubber. This provides thermal insulation and gives cetaceans their smooth, streamlined body shape. In larger species, it can reach a thickness up to half a meter (1.6 ft).


title: Cetacea

text: Sexual dimorphism evolved in many toothed whales. Sperm whales, narwhals, many members of the beaked whale family, several species of the porpoise family, orcas, pilot whales, eastern spinner dolphins and northern right whale dolphins show this characteristic. Males in these species developed external features absent in females that are advantageous in combat or display. For example, male sperm whales are up to 63% percent larger than females, and many beaked whales possess tusks used in competition among males.


title: Cetacea

text: Hind legs are not present in cetaceans, nor are any other external body attachments such as a pinna and hair.


title: Cetacea

text: Whales have an elongated head, especially baleen whales, due to the wide overhanging jaw. Bowhead whale plates can be long. Their nostril(s) make up the blowhole, with one in toothed whales and two in baleen whales.


title: Cetacea

text: The nostrils are located on top of the head above the eyes so that the rest of the body can remain submerged while surfacing for air. The back of the skull is significantly shortened and deformed. By shifting the nostrils to the top of the head, the nasal passages extend perpendicularly through the skull. The teeth or baleen in the upper jaw sit exclusively on the maxilla. The braincase is concentrated through the nasal passage to the front and is correspondingly higher, with individual cranial bones that overlap.


title: Cetacea

text: In toothed whales, connective tissue exists in the melon as a head buckle. This is filled with air sacs and fat that aid in buoyancy and biosonar. The sperm whale has a particularly pronounced melon; this is called the spermaceti organ and contains the eponymous spermaceti, hence the name "sperm whale". Even the long tusk of the narwhal is a vice-formed tooth. In many toothed whales, the depression in their skull is due to the formation of a large melon and multiple, asymmetric air bags.


title: Cetacea

text: River dolphins, unlike most other cetaceans, can turn their head 90°. Most other cetaceans have fused neck vertebrae and are unable to turn their head at all.


title: Cetacea

text: The baleen of baleen whales consists of long, fibrous strands of keratin. Located in place of the teeth, it has the appearance of a huge fringe and is used to sieve the water for plankton and krill.


title: Cetacea

text: The neocortex of many cetaceans is home to elongated spindle neurons that, prior to 2019, were known only in hominids. In humans, these cells are thought to be involved in social conduct, emotions, judgment and theory of mind. Cetacean spindle neurons are found in areas of the brain homologous to where they are found in humans, suggesting they perform a similar function.


title: Cetacea

text: Brain size was previously considered a major indicator of intelligence. Since most of the brain is used for maintaining bodily functions, greater ratios of brain to body mass may increase the amount of brain mass available for cognitive tasks. Allometric analysis of the relationship between mammalian brain mass (weight) and body mass for different species of mammals shows that larger species generally have larger brains. However, this increase is not fully proportional. Typically the brain mass only increases in proportion to somewhere between the two-thirds power (or the square of the cube root) and the three-quarters power (or the cube of the fourth root) of the body mass.


title: Cetacea

text: where "k" is between two-thirds and three-quarters. Thus if Species B is twice the size of Species A, its brain size will typically be somewhere between 60% and 70% higher. Comparison of a particular animal's brain size with the expected brain size based on such an analysis provides an encephalization quotient that can be used as an indication of animal intelligence. Sperm whales have the largest brain mass of any animal on Earth, averaging and in mature males. The brain to body mass ratio in some odontocetes, such as belugas and narwhals, is second only to humans. In some whales, however, it is less than half that of humans: 0.9% versus 2.1%.


title: Cetacea

text: The cetacean skeleton is largely made up of cortical bone, which stabilizes the animal in the water. For this reason, the usual terrestrial compact bones, which are finely woven cancellous bone, are replaced with lighter and more elastic material. In many places, bone elements are replaced by cartilage and even fat, thereby improving their hydrostatic qualities. The ear and the muzzle contain a bone shape that is exclusive to cetaceans with a high density, resembling porcelain. This conducts sound better than other bones, thus aiding biosonar.


title: Cetacea

text: The number of vertebrae that make up the spine varies by species, ranging from forty to ninety-three. The cervical spine, found in all mammals, consists of seven vertebrae which, however, are reduced or fused. This fusion provides stability during swimming at the expense of mobility. The fins are carried by the thoracic vertebrae, ranging from nine to seventeen individual vertebrae. The sternum is cartilaginous. The last two to three pairs of ribs are not connected and hang freely in the body wall. The stable lumbar and tail include the other vertebrae. Below the caudal vertebrae is the chevron bone.


title: Cetacea

text: The front limbs are paddle-shaped with shortened arms and elongated finger bones, to support movement. They are connected by cartilage. The second and third fingers display a proliferation of the finger members, a so-called hyperphalangy. The shoulder joint is the only functional joint in all cetaceans except for the Amazon river dolphin. The collarbone is completely absent.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetaceans have a cartilaginous fluke at the end of their tails that is used for propulsion. The fluke is set horizontally on the body, unlike fish, which have vertical tails.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetaceans have powerful hearts. Blood oxygen is distributed effectively throughout the body. They are warm-blooded, i.e., they hold a nearly constant body temperature.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetaceans have lungs, meaning they breathe air. An individual can last without a breath from a few minutes to over two hours depending on the species. Cetacea are deliberate breathers who must be awake to inhale and exhale. When stale air, warmed from the lungs, is exhaled, it condenses as it meets colder external air. As with a terrestrial mammal breathing out on a cold day, a small cloud of 'steam' appears. This is called the 'spout' and varies across species in shape, angle and height. Species can be identified at a distance using this characteristic.


title: Cetacea

text: The structure of the respiratory and circulatory systems is of particular importance for the life of marine mammals. The oxygen balance is effective. Each breath can replace up to 90% of the total lung volume. For land mammals, in comparison, this value is usually about 15%. During inhalation, about twice as much oxygen is absorbed by the lung tissue as in a land mammal. As with all mammals, the oxygen is stored in the blood and the lungs, but in cetaceans, it is also stored in various tissues, mainly in the muscles. The muscle pigment, myoglobin, provides an effective bond. This additional oxygen storage is vital for deep diving, since beyond a depth around , the lung tissue is almost completely compressed by the water pressure.


title: Cetacea

text: The stomach consists of three chambers. The first region is formed by a loose gland and a muscular forestomach (missing in beaked whales); this is followed by the main stomach and the pylorus. Both are equipped with glands to help digestion. A bowel adjoins the stomachs, whose individual sections can only be distinguished histologically. The liver is large and separate from the gall bladder.


title: Cetacea

text: The kidneys are long and flattened. The salt concentration in cetacean blood is lower than that in seawater, requiring kidneys to excrete salt. This allows the animals to drink seawater.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetacean eyes are set on the sides rather than the front of the head. This means only species with pointed 'beaks' (such as dolphins) have good binocular vision forward and downward. Tear glands secrete greasy tears, which protect the eyes from the salt in the water. The lens is almost spherical, which is most efficient at focusing the minimal light that reaches deep water. Odontocetes have little to no ability to taste or smell, while mysticetes are believed to have some ability to smell because of their reduced, but functional olfactory system. Cetaceans are known to possess excellent hearing.


title: Cetacea

text: The external ear has lost the pinna (visible ear), but still retains a narrow external auditory meatus. To register sounds, instead, the posterior part of the mandible has a thin lateral wall (the pan bone) fronting a concavity that houses a fat pad. The pad passes anteriorly into the greatly enlarged mandibular foramen to reach in under the teeth and posteriorly to reach the thin lateral wall of the ectotympanic. The ectotympanic offers a reduced attachment area for the tympanic membrane. The connection between this auditory complex and the rest of the skull is reduced—to a single, small cartilage in oceanic dolphins.


title: Cetacea

text: In odontocetes, the complex is surrounded by spongy tissue filled with air spaces, while in mysticetes, it is integrated into the skull as with land mammals. In odontocetes, the tympanic membrane (or ligament) has the shape of a folded-in umbrella that stretches from the ectotympanic ring and narrows off to the malleus (quite unlike the flat, circular membrane found in land mammals.) In mysticetes, it also forms a large protrusion (known as the "glove finger"), which stretches into the external meatus and the stapes are larger than in odontocetes. In some small sperm whales, the malleus is fused with the ectotympanic.


title: Cetacea

text: The ear ossicles are pachyosteosclerotic (dense and compact) and differently shaped from land mammals (other aquatic mammals, such as sirenians and earless seals, have also lost their pinnae). T semicircular canals are much smaller relative to body size than in other mammals.


title: Cetacea

text: The auditory bulla is separated from the skull and composed of two compact and dense bones (the periotic and tympanic) referred to as the tympanoperiotic complex. This complex is located in a cavity in the middle ear, which, in the Mysticeti, is divided by a bony projection and compressed between the exoccipital and squamosal, but in the odontoceti, is large and completely surrounds the bulla (hence called "peribullar"), which is, therefore, not connected to the skull except in physeterids. In the Odontoceti, the cavity is filled with a dense foam in which the bulla hangs suspended in five or more sets of ligaments. The pterygoid and peribullar sinuses that form the cavity tend to be more developed in shallow water and riverine species than in pelagic Mysticeti. In Odontoceti, the composite auditory structure is thought to serve as an acoustic isolator, analogous to the lamellar construction found in the temporal bone in bats.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetaceans use sound to communicate, using groans, moans, whistles, clicks or the 'singing' of the humpback whale.


title: Cetacea

text: Odontoceti are generally capable of echolocation. They can discern the size, shape, surface characteristics, distance and movement of an object. They can search for, chase and catch fast-swimming prey in total darkness. Most Odontoceti can distinguish between prey and nonprey (such as humans or boats); captive Odontoceti can be trained to distinguish between, for example, balls of different sizes or shapes. Echolocation clicks also contain characteristic details unique to each animal, which may suggest that toothed whales can discern between their own click and that of others.


title: Cetacea

text: Mysticeti have exceptionally thin, wide basilar membranes in their cochleae without stiffening agents, making their ears adapted for processing low to infrasonic frequencies.


title: Cetacea

text: The initial karyotype includes a set of chromosomes from 2n = 44. They have four pairs of telocentric chromosomes (whose centromeres sit at one of the telomeres), two to four pairs of subtelocentric and one or two large pairs of submetacentric chromosomes. The remaining chromosomes are metacentric—the centromere is approximately in the middle—and are rather small. All cetaceans have chromosomes 2n = 44, except the sperm whales and pygmy sperm whales, which have 2n = 42.


title: Cetacea

text: Cetaceans are found in many aquatic habitats. While many marine species, such as the blue whale, the humpback whale and the orca, have a distribution area that includes nearly the entire ocean, some species occur only locally or in broken populations. These include the vaquita, which inhabits a small part of the Gulf of California and Hector's dolphin, which lives in some coastal waters in New Zealand. River dolphin species live exclusively in fresh water.


title: Cetacea

text: Many species inhabit specific latitudes, often in tropical or subtropical waters, such as Bryde's whale or Risso's dolphin. Others are found only in a specific body of water. The southern right whale dolphin and the hourglass dolphin live only in the Southern Ocean. The narwhal and the beluga live only in the Arctic Ocean. Sowerby's beaked whale and the Clymene dolphin exist only in the Atlantic and the Pacific white-sided dolphin and the northern straight dolphin live only in the North Pacific.


title: Cetacea

text: Cosmopolitan species may be found in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. However, northern and southern populations become genetically separated over time. In some species, this separation leads eventually to a divergence of the species, such as produced the southern right whale, North Pacific right whale and North Atlantic right whale. Migratory species' reproductive sites often lie in the tropics and their feeding grounds in polar regions.


title: Cetacea

text: Thirty-two species are found in European waters, including twenty-five toothed and seven baleen species.


title: Cetacea

text: Many species of whales migrate on a latitudinal basis to move between seasonal habitats. For example, the gray whale migrates round trip. The journey begins at winter birthing grounds in warm lagoons along Baja California, and traverses of coastline to summer feeding grounds in the Bering, Chuckchi and Beaufort seas off the coast of Alaska.


title: Cetacea

text: Conscious breathing cetaceans sleep but cannot afford to be unconscious for long, because they may drown. While knowledge of sleep in wild cetaceans is limited, toothed cetaceans in captivity have been recorded to exhibit unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS), which means they sleep with one side of their brain at a time, so that they may swim, breathe consciously and avoid both predators and social contact during their period of rest.


title: Cetacea

text: A 2008 study found that sperm whales sleep in vertical postures just under the surface in passive shallow 'drift-dives', generally during the day, during which whales do not respond to passing vessels unless they are in contact, leading to the suggestion that whales possibly sleep during such dives.


title: Cetacea

text: While diving, the animals reduce their oxygen consumption by lowering the heart activity and blood circulation; individual organs receive no oxygen during this time. Some rorquals can dive for up to 40 minutes, sperm whales between 60 and 90 minutes and bottlenose whales for two hours. Diving depths average about . Species such as sperm whales can dive to , although more commonly .


title: Cetacea

text: Most cetaceans are social animals, although a few species live in pairs or are solitary. A group, known as a pod, usually consists of ten to fifty animals, but on occasion, such as mass availability of food or during mating season, groups may encompass more than one thousand individuals. Inter-species socialization can occur.


title: Cetacea

text: Pods have a fixed hierarchy, with the priority positions determined by biting, pushing or ramming. The behavior in the group is aggressive only in situations of stress such as lack of food, but usually it is peaceful. Contact swimming, mutual fondling and nudging are common. The playful behavior of the animals, which is manifested in air jumps, somersaults, surfing, or fin hitting, occurs more often than not in smaller cetaceans, such as dolphins and porpoises.


title: Cetacea

text: Males in some baleen species communicate via whale song, sequences of high pitched sounds. These "songs" can be heard for hundreds of kilometers. Each population generally shares a distinct song, which evolves over time. Sometimes, an individual can be identified by its distinctive vocals, such as the 52-hertz whale that sings at a higher frequency than other whales. Some individuals are capable of generating over 600 distinct sounds. In baleen species such as humpbacks, blues and fins, male-specific song is believed to be used to attract and display fitness to females.


title: Cetacea

text: Pod groups also hunt, often with other species. Many species of dolphins accompany large tunas on hunting expeditions, following large schools of fish. The orca hunts in pods and targets belugas and even larger whales. Humpback whales, among others, form in collaboration bubble carpets to herd krill or plankton into bait balls before lunging at them.


title: Cetacea

text: Smaller cetaceans, such as dolphins and porpoises, engage in complex play behavior, including such things as producing stable underwater toroidal air-core vortex rings or "bubble rings". The two main methods of bubble ring production are rapid puffing of air into the water and allowing it to rise to the surface, forming a ring, or swimming repeatedly in a circle and then stopping to inject air into the helical vortex currents thus formed. They also appear to enjoy biting the vortex rings, so that they burst into many separate bubbles and then rise quickly to the surface. Whales produce bubble nets to aid in herding prey.


title: Cetacea

text: Larger whales are also thought to engage in play. The southern right whale elevates its tail fluke above the water, remaining in the same position for a considerable time. This is known as "sailing". It appears to be a form of play and is most commonly seen off the coast of Argentina and South Africa. Humpback whales also display this behaviour.


title: Cetacea

text: Self-awareness appears to be a sign of abstract thinking. Self-awareness, although not well-defined, is believed to be a precursor to more advanced processes such as metacognitive reasoning (thinking about thinking) that humans exploit. Dolphins appear to possess self-awareness. The most widely used test for self-awareness in animals is the mirror test, in which a temporary dye is placed on an animal's body and the animal is then presented with a mirror. Researchers then explore whether the animal shows signs of self-recognition.


title: Cetacea

text: Critics claim that the results of these tests are susceptible to the Clever Hans effect. This test is much less definitive than when used for primates. Primates can touch the mark or the mirror, while dolphins cannot, making their alleged self-recognition behavior less certain. Skeptics argue that behaviors said to identify self-awareness resemble existing social behaviors, so researchers could be misinterpreting self-awareness for social responses. Advocates counter that the behaviors are different from normal responses to another individual. Dolphins show less definitive behavior of self-awareness, because they have no pointing ability.


title: Cetacea

text: In 1995, Marten and Psarakos used video to test dolphin self-awareness. They showed dolphins real-time footage of themselves, recorded footage and another dolphin. They concluded that their evidence suggested self-awareness rather than social behavior. While this particular study has not been replicated, dolphins later "passed" the mirror test.


title: Cetacea

text: Most cetaceans sexually mature at seven to 10 years. An exception to this is the La Plata dolphin, which is sexually mature at two years, but lives only to about 20. The sperm whale reaches sexual maturity within about 20 years and has a lifespan between 50 and 100 years.


title: Cetacea

text: For most species, reproduction is seasonal. Ovulation coincides with male fertility. This cycle is usually coupled with seasonal movements that can be observed in many species. Most toothed whales have no fixed bonds. In many species, females choose several partners during a season. Baleen whales are largely monogamous within each reproductive period.


title: Cetacea

text: Gestation ranges from 9 to 16 months. Duration is not necessarily a function of size. Porpoises and blue whales gestate for about 11 months. As with all mammals other than marsupials and monotremes, the embryo is fed by the placenta, an organ that draws nutrients from the mother's bloodstream. Mammals without placentas either lay minuscule eggs (monotremes) or bear minuscule offspring (marsupials).


title: Cetacea

text: Cetaceans usually bear one calf. In the case of twins, one usually dies, because the mother cannot produce sufficient milk for both. The fetus is positioned for a tail-first delivery, so that the risk of drowning during delivery is minimal. After birth, the mother carries the infant to the surface for its first breath. At birth, they are about one-third of their adult length and tend to be independently active, comparable to terrestrial mammals.


title: Cetacea

text: Like other placental mammals, cetaceans give birth to well-developed calves and nurse them with milk from their mammary glands. When suckling, the mother actively splashes milk into the mouth of the calf, using the muscles of her mammary glands, as the calf has no lips. This milk usually has a high-fat content, ranging from 16 to 46%, causing the calf to increase rapidly in size and weight.


title: Cetacea

text: In many small cetaceans, suckling lasts for about four months. In large species, it lasts for over a year and involves a strong bond between mother and offspring.


title: Cetacea

text: The mother is solely responsible for brooding. In some species, so-called "aunts" occasionally suckle the young.


title: Cetacea

text: Among cetaceans, whales are distinguished by an unusual longevity compared to other higher mammals. Some species, such as the bowhead whale ("Balaena mysticetus"), can reach over 200 years. Based on the annual rings of the bony otic capsule, the age of the oldest known specimen is a male determined to be 211 years at the time of death.


title: Cetacea

text: Upon death, whale carcasses fall to the deep ocean and provide a substantial habitat for marine life. Evidence of whale falls in present-day and fossil records shows that deep-sea whale falls support a rich assemblage of creatures, with a global diversity of 407 species, comparable to other neritic biodiversity hotspots, such as cold seeps and hydrothermal vents.


title: Cetacea

text: Deterioration of whale carcasses happens through three stages. Initially, organisms such as sharks and hagfish scavenge the soft tissues at a rapid rate over a period of months and as long as two years. This is followed by the colonization of bones and surrounding sediments (which contain organic matter) by enrichment opportunists, such as crustaceans and polychaetes, throughout a period of years. Finally, sulfophilic bacteria reduce the bones releasing hydrogen sulfide enabling the growth of chemoautotrophic organisms, which in turn, support organisms such as mussels, clams, limpets and sea snails. This stage may last for decades and supports a rich assemblage of species, averaging 185 per site.


title: Cetacea

text: Brucellosis affects almost all mammals. It is distributed worldwide, while fishing and pollution have caused porpoise population density pockets, which risks further infection and disease spreading. "Brucella ceti", most prevalent in dolphins, has been shown to cause chronic disease, increasing the chance of failed birth and miscarriages, male infertility, neurobrucellosis, cardiopathies, bone and skin lesions, strandings and death. Until 2008, no case had ever been reported in porpoises, but isolated populations have an increased risk and consequentially a high mortality rate.


title: Cetacea

text: Molecular biology and immunology show that cetaceans are phylogenetically closely related with the even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Whales' direct lineage began in the early Eocene, around 55.8 million years ago, with early artiodactyls. Fossil discoveries at the beginning of the 21st century confirmed this.


title: Cetacea

text: Most molecular biological evidence suggests that hippos are the closest living relatives. Common anatomical features include similarities in the morphology of the posterior molars, and the bony ring on the temporal bone (bulla) and the involucre, a skull feature that was previously associated only with cetaceans. The fossil record, however, does not support this relationship, because the hippo lineage dates back only about 15 million years. The most striking common feature is the talus, a bone in the upper ankle. Early cetaceans, archaeocetes, show double castors, which occur only in even-toed ungulates. Corresponding findings are from Tethys Sea deposits in northern India and Pakistan. The Tethys Sea was a shallow sea between the Asian continent and northward-bound Indian plate.


title: Cetacea

text: The direct ancestors of today's cetaceans are probably found within the Dorudontidae whose most famous member, "Dorudon", lived at the same time as "Basilosaurus". Both groups had already developed the typical anatomical features of today's whales, such as hearing. Life in the water for a formerly terrestrial creature required significant adjustments such as the fixed bulla, which replaces the mammalian eardrum, as well as sound-conducting elements for submerged directional hearing. Their wrists were stiffened and probably contributed to the typical build of flippers. The hind legs existed, however, but were significantly reduced in size and with a vestigial pelvis connection.


title: Cetacea

text: The fossil record traces the gradual transition from terrestrial to aquatic life. The regression of the hind limbs allowed greater flexibility of the spine. This made it possible for whales to move around with the vertical tail hitting the water. The front legs transformed into flippers, costing them their mobility on land.


title: Cetacea

text: One of the oldest members of ancient cetaceans (Archaeoceti) is "Pakicetus" from the Middle Eocene. This is an animal the size of a wolf, whose skeleton is known only partially. It had functioning legs and lived near the shore. This suggests the animal could still move on land. The long snout had carnivorous dentition.


title: Cetacea

text: The transition from land to sea dates to about 49 million years ago, with the "Ambulocetus" ("running whale"), discovered in Pakistan. It was up to long. The limbs of this archaeocete were leg-like, but it was already fully aquatic, indicating that a switch to a lifestyle independent from land happened extraordinarily quickly. The snout was elongated with overhead nostrils and eyes. The tail was strong and supported movement through water. "Ambulocetus" probably lived in mangroves in brackish water and fed in the riparian zone as a predator of fish and other vertebrates.


title: Cetacea

text: Dating from about 45 million years ago are species such as "Indocetus", "Kutchicetus", "Rodhocetus" and "Andrewsiphius", all of which were adapted to life in water. The hind limbs of these species were regressed and their body shapes resemble modern whales. Protocetidae family member "Rodhocetus" is considered the first to be fully aquatic. The body was streamlined and delicate with extended hand and foot bones. The merged pelvic lumbar spine was present, making it possible to support the floating movement of the tail. It was likely a good swimmer, but could probably move only clumsily on land, much like a modern seal.


title: Cetacea

text: Since the late Eocene, about 40 million years ago, cetaceans populated the subtropical oceans and no longer emerged on land. An example is the 18-m-long "Basilosaurus", sometimes referred to as "Zeuglodon". The transition from land to water was completed in about 10 million years. The Wadi Al-Hitan ("Whale Valley") in Egypt contains numerous skeletons of "Basilosaurus", as well as other marine vertebrates.


title: Cetacea

text: Molecular findings and morphological indications suggest that artiodactyls as traditionally defined are paraphyletic with respect to cetaceans. Cetaceans are deeply nested within the former; the two groups together form a monophyletic taxon, for which the name Cetartiodactyla is sometimes used. Modern nomenclature divides Artiodactyla (or Cetartiodactyla) in four subordinate taxa: camelids (Tylopoda), pigs and peccaries (Suina), ruminants (Ruminantia), and hippos plus whales (Whippomorpha).


title: Cetacea

text: Within Cetacea, the two parvorders are baleen whales (Mysticeti) which owe their name to their baleen, and toothed whales (Odontoceti), which have teeth shaped like cones, spades, pegs, or tusks, and can perceive their environment through biosonar.


title: Cetacea

text: the Odontoceti families Physeteridae (sperm whales), Ziphiidae (beaked whales), and Kogiidae (pygmy and dwarf sperm whales); and all the Mysticeti families Balaenidae (right and bowhead whales), Cetotheriidae (pygmy right whales), Eschrichtiidae (grey whales), and some of the Balaenopteridae (minke, Bryde's, sei, blue and fin; not Eden's and Omura's whales).


title: Cetacea

text: The primary threats to cetaceans come from people, both directly from whaling or drive hunting and indirect threats from fishing and pollution.


title: Cetacea

text: Whaling is the practice of hunting whales, mainly baleen and sperm whales. This activity has gone on since the Stone Age.


title: Cetacea

text: In the Middle Ages, reasons for whaling included their meat, oil usable as fuel and the jawbone, which was used in house construction. At the end of the Middle Ages, early whaling fleets aimed at baleen whales, such as bowheads. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Dutch fleet had about 300 whaling ships with 18,000 crewmen.


title: Cetacea

text: In the 18th and 19th centuries, baleen whales especially were hunted for their baleen, which was used as a replacement for wood, or in products requiring strength and flexibility such as corsets and crinoline skirts. In addition, the spermaceti found in the sperm whale was used as a machine lubricant and the ambergris as a material for pharmaceutical and perfume industries. In the second half of the 19th century, the explosive harpoon was invented, leading to a massive increase in the catch size.


title: Cetacea

text: Large ships were used as "mother" ships for the whale handlers. In the first half of the 20th century, whales were of great importance as a supplier of raw materials. Whales were intensively hunted during this time; in the 1930s, 30,000 whales were killed. This increased to over 40,000 animals per year up to the 1960s, when stocks of large baleen whales collapsed.


title: Cetacea

text: Most hunted whales are now threatened, with some great whale populations exploited to the brink of extinction. Atlantic and Korean gray whale populations were completely eradicated and the North Atlantic right whale population fell to some 300–600. The blue whale population is estimated to be around 14,000.


title: Cetacea

text: The first efforts to protect whales came in 1931. Some particularly endangered species, such as the humpback whale (which then numbered about 100 animals), were placed under international protection and the first protected areas were established. In 1946, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established, to monitor and secure whale stocks. Whaling of 14 large species for commercial purposes was prohibited worldwide by this organization from 1985 to 2005, though some countries do not honor the prohibition.


title: Cetacea

text: The stocks of species such as humpback and blue whales have recovered, though they are still threatened. The United States Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 sustain the marine mammal population. It prohibits the taking of marine mammals except for several hundred per year taken in Alaska. Japanese whaling ships are allowed to hunt whales of different species for ostensibly scientific purposes.


title: Cetacea

text: Aboriginal whaling is still permitted. About 1,200 pilot whales were taken in the Faroe Islands in 2017, and about 900 narwhals and 800 belugas per year are taken in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia. About 150 minke are taken in Greenland per year, 120 gray whales in Siberia and 50 bowheads in Alaska, as aboriginal whaling, besides the 600 minke taken commercially by Norway, 300 minke and 100 sei taken by Japan and up to 100 fin whales taken by Iceland. Iceland and Norway do not recognize the ban and operate commercial whaling. Norway and Japan are committed to ending the ban.


title: Cetacea

text: Dolphins and other smaller cetaceans are sometimes hunted in an activity known as dolphin drive hunting. This is accomplished by driving a pod together with boats, usually into a bay or onto a beach. Their escape is prevented by closing off the route to the ocean with other boats or nets. Dolphins are hunted this way in several places around the world, including the Solomon Islands, the Faroe Islands, Peru and Japan (the most well-known practitioner). Dolphins are mostly hunted for their meat, though some end up in dolphinaria. Despite the controversy thousands of dolphins are caught in drive hunts each year.


title: Cetacea

text: Dolphin pods often reside near large tuna shoals. This is known to fishermen, who look for dolphins to catch tuna. Dolphins are much easier to spot from a distance than tuna, since they regularly breathe. The fishermen pull their nets hundreds of meters wide in a circle around the dolphin groups, in the expectation that they will net a tuna shoal. When the nets are pulled together, the dolphins become entangled under water and drown. Line fisheries in larger rivers are threats to river dolphins.


title: Cetacea

text: A greater threat than by-catch for small cetaceans is targeted hunting. In Southeast Asia, they are sold as fish-replacement to locals, since the region's edible fish promise higher revenues from exports. In the Mediterranean, small cetaceans are targeted to ease pressure on edible fish.


title: Cetacea

text: A stranding is when a cetacean leaves the water to lie on a beach. In some cases, groups of whales strand together. The best known are mass strandings of pilot whales and sperm whales. Stranded cetaceans usually die, because their as much as body weight compresses their lungs or breaks their ribs. Smaller whales can die of heatstroke because of their thermal insulation.


title: Cetacea

text: Since 2000, whale strandings frequently occurred following military sonar testing. In December 2001, the US Navy admitted partial responsibility for the beaching and the deaths of several marine mammals in March 2000. The coauthor of the interim report stated that animals killed by active sonar of some Navy ships were injured. Generally, underwater noise, which is still on the increase, is increasingly tied to strandings; because it impairs communication and sense of direction.


title: Cetacea

text: Climate change influences the major wind systems and ocean currents, which also lead to cetacean strandings. Researchers studying strandings on the Tasmanian coast from 1920 to 2002 found that greater strandings occurred at certain time intervals. Years with increased strandings were associated with severe storms, which initiated cold water flows close to the coast. In nutrient-rich, cold water, cetaceans expect large prey animals, so they follow the cold water currents into shallower waters, where the risk is higher for strandings. Whales and dolphins who live in pods may accompany sick or debilitated pod members into shallow water, stranding them at low tide.


title: Cetacea

text: Heavy metals, residues of many plant and insect venoms and plastic waste flotsam are not biodegradable. Sometimes, cetaceans consume these hazardous materials, mistaking them for food items. As a result, the animals are more susceptible to disease and have fewer offspring.


title: Cetacea

text: Damage to the ozone layer reduces plankton reproduction because of its resulting radiation. This shrinks the food supply for many marine animals, but the filter-feeding baleen whales are most impacted. Even the Nekton is, in addition to intensive exploitation, damaged by the radiation.


title: Cetacea

text: Food supplies are also reduced long-term by ocean acidification due to increased absorption of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. The CO reacts with water to form carbonic acid, which reduces the construction of the calcium carbonate skeletons of food supplies for zooplankton that baleen whales depend on.


title: Cetacea

text: The military and resource extraction industries operate strong sonar and blasting operations. Marine seismic surveys use loud, low-frequency sound that show what is lying underneath the Earth's surface. Vessel traffic also increases noise in the oceans. Such noise can disrupt cetacean behavior such as their use of biosonar for orientation and communication. Severe instances can panic them, driving them to the surface. This leads to bubbles in blood gases and can cause decompression sickness. Naval exercises with sonar regularly results in fallen cetaceans that wash up with fatal decompression. Sounds can be disruptive at distances of more than . Damage varies across frequency and species.


title: Cetacea

text: In Aristotle's time, the fourth century BCE, whales were regarded as fish due to their superficial similarity. Aristotle, however, observed many physiological and anatomical similarities with the terrestrial vertebrates, such as blood (circulation), lungs, uterus and fin anatomy. His detailed descriptions were assimilated by the Romans, but mixed with a more accurate knowledge of the dolphins, as mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his "Natural history". In the art of this and subsequent periods, dolphins are portrayed with a high-arched head (typical of porpoises) and a long snout. The harbour porpoise was one of the most accessible species for early cetologists; because it could be seen close to land, inhabiting shallow coastal areas of Europe. Much of the findings that apply to all cetaceans were first discovered in porpoises. One of the first anatomical descriptions of the airways of a harbor porpoise dates from 1671 by John Ray. It nevertheless referred to the porpoise as a fish.


title: Cetacea

text: In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae (1758), Swedish biologist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus asserted that cetaceans were mammals and not fish. His groundbreaking binomial system formed the basis of modern whale classification.


title: Cetacea

text: Stone Age petroglyphs, such as those in Roddoy and Reppa (Norway), and the Bangudae Petroglyphs in South Korea, depict them. Whale bones were used for many purposes. In the Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae on Orkney sauce pans were made from whale vertebrae.


title: Cetacea

text: The whale was first mentioned in ancient Greece by Homer. There, it is called Ketos, a term that initially included all large marine animals. From this was derived the Roman word for whale, Cetus. Other names were phálaina (Aristotle, Latin form of ballaena) for the female and, with an ironic characteristic style, musculus (Mouse) for the male. North Sea whales were called Physeter, which was meant for the sperm whale "Physter macrocephalus". Whales are described in particular by Aristotle, Pliny and Ambrose. All mention both live birth and suckling. Pliny describes the problems associated with the lungs with spray tubes and Ambrose claimed that large whales would take their young into their mouth to protect them.


title: Cetacea

text: In the Bible especially, the leviathan plays a role as a sea monster. The essence, which features a giant crocodile or a dragon and a whale, was created according to the Bible by God and should again be destroyed by him. In the Book of Job, the leviathan is described in more detail.


title: Cetacea

text: In Jonah there is a more recognizable description of a whale alongside the prophet Jonah, who, on his flight from the city of Nineveh is swallowed by a whale.


title: Cetacea

text: Dolphins are mentioned far more often than whales. Aristotle discusses the sacred animals of the Greeks in his "Historia Animalium" and gives details of their role as aquatic animals. The Greeks admired the dolphin as a "king of the aquatic animals" and referred to them erroneously as fish. Its intelligence was apparent both in its ability to escape from fishnets and in its collaboration with fishermen.


title: Cetacea

text: River dolphins are known from the Ganges and – erroneously – the Nile. In the latter case it was equated with sharks and catfish. Supposedly they attacked even crocodiles.


title: Cetacea

text: Dolphins appear in Greek mythology. Because of their intelligence, they rescued multiple people from drowning. They were said to love music – probably not least because of their own song – they saved, in the legends, famous musicians such as Arion of Lesbos from Methymna or Kairanos from Miletus. Because of their mental faculties, dolphins were considered to be associated with the god Dionysus.


title: Cetacea

text: Dolphins belong to the domain of Poseidon and led him to his wife Amphitrite. Dolphins are associated with other gods, such as Apollo, Dionysus and Aphrodite. The Greeks paid tribute to both whales and dolphins with their own constellation. The constellation of the Whale (Ketos, lat. Cetus) is located south of the Dolphin (Delphi, lat. Delphinus) north of the zodiac.


title: Cetacea

text: Ancient art often included dolphin representations, including the Cretan Minoans. Later they appeared on reliefs, gems, lamps, coins, mosaics and gravestones. A particularly popular representation is that of Arion or the Taras (mythology) riding on a dolphin. In early Christian art, the dolphin is a popular motif, at times used as a symbol of Christ.


title: Cetacea

text: St. Brendan described in his travel story "Navigatio Sancti Brendani" an encounter with a whale, between the years 565–573. He described how he and his companions entered a treeless island, which turned out to be a giant whale, which he called Jasconicus. He met this whale seven years later and rested on his back.


title: Cetacea

text: Most descriptions of large whales from this time until the whaling era, beginning in the 17th century, were of beached whales, which resembled no other animal. This was particularly true for the sperm whale, the most frequently stranded in larger groups. Raymond Gilmore documented seventeen sperm whales in the estuary of the Elbe from 1723 to 1959 and thirty-one animals on the coast of Great Britain in 1784. In 1827, a blue whale beached itself off the coast of Ostend. Whales were used as attractions in museums and traveling exhibitions.


title: Cetacea

text: Whalers from the 17th to 19th centuries depicted whales in drawings and recounted tales of their occupation. Although they knew that whales were harmless giants, they described battles with harpooned animals. These included descriptions of sea monsters, including huge whales, sharks, sea snakes, giant squid and octopuses.


title: Cetacea

text: Among the first whalers who described their experiences on whaling trips was Captain William Scoresby from Great Britain, who published the book "Northern Whale Fishery", describing the hunt for northern baleen whales. This was followed by Thomas Beale, a British surgeon, in his book "Some observations on the natural history of the sperm whale" in 1835; and Frederick Debell Bennett's "The tale of a whale hunt" in 1840. Whales were described in narrative literature and paintings, most famously in the novels "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne.


title: Cetacea

text: Baleen was used to make vessel components such as the bottom of a bucket in the Scottish National Museum. The Norsemen crafted ornamented plates from baleen, sometimes interpreted as ironing boards.


title: Cetacea

text: In the Canadian Arctic (east coast) in Punuk and Thule culture (1000–1600 C.E.), baleen was used to construct houses in place of wood as roof support for winter houses, with half of the building buried under the ground. The actual roof was probably made of animal skins that were covered with soil and moss.