• morphballganon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    10 days ago

    “Orca whale” is a misnomer. Same with Killer whale. They are not whales. The nickname is a mistranslation of whale killer because Orcas kill whales.

    • palordrolap@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      10 days ago

      Orcas are in the dolphin family which is a branch of the whale family, specifically those with teeth rather than baleen. Compare how humans are in the ape family which is a branch of the primate family, specifically those that are less arboreal and lack tails. If we can say humans are primates, we can definitely say that orcas are whales.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        10 days ago

        Orcas are actually moose. You see there are 2 sexes in the Meese family. The Male have legs and horns and truck around on land, the Women have flippers and swim around the ocean. Moose all have 1 thing in common, it’s a fetish for being eaten. The Orcas eat the Moose, consuming their sperm and it gets pushed out towards the egg prior to working it’s way out of the esophagus into to the stomach.

        /The f did I just write

    • egrets@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      10 days ago

      I’m yet to see a convincing, authoritative historical source on the “whale killer” factoid. Follow the trail on asesina-ballenas and Basque fishermen and you get nowhere.