marine mammal

marine mammal

English

Noun

marine mammal (plural marine mammals)

1. A mammal which lives wholly in seawater, such as whales and dolphins, or that is restricted to coastal habitats and feeds on marine life, such as seals, sea cows, polar bears, and sea otters.
   • 1857 April, Philippe de Kerhallet, “The Atlantic Ocean”, in Edinburgh Review‎, volume CV, number CCXIV, page 371:

     The influence of the temperature of the Gulf-stream upon animal life in the ocean is very curious. The whale so sedulously shuns its warm waters, as almost to indicate their track by its absence ; while yet abundantly found on each side of it. The physical reasons are doubtless the same which prevent this great marine mammal from ever crossing the equator from one hemisphere to the other — a fact now well ascertained.

Synonyms

• sea mammal

Hypernyms

• fish (obsolete), mammal, animal

Translations

mammal living in seawater

Danish: havpattedyr (da) n Faroese: havsúgdýr n Finnish: merinisäkäs Galician: mamífero mariño m German: Meeressäuger (de) m, Meeressäugetier (de) n Hebrew: יוֹנֵק יַמִּי‎ (he) m (yonéq yamí) Icelandic: sjávarspendýr (is) n Ingrian: merizveeri Japanese: 海獣 (ja) (kaijū) Norwegian: Bokmål: sjøpattedyr n Nynorsk: sjøpattedyr n Swedish: havsdäggdjur n