Cetacea Cetacea Cetacea () is a widely distributed and diverse clade of aquatic mammals that today consists of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetaceans are carnivorous and finned. Most species live in the sea, some in rivers. The name is derived from the Latin "cetus" "whale", itself from the Greek κῆτος "kētos" "huge fish". There are around 89 extant species, which are divided into two groups or parvorders, the Odontoceti or toothed whales, a group of more than 70 species that includes the dolphins, porpoises, belugas, narwhals, sperm and beaked whales, and the Mysticeti or baleen whales, of which there are now
And God Created Great Whales in the King James Version of the Bible. The music contains elements of melodic pentatonicism and asynchronous aleatoricism, which Hovhaness referred to as "free non-rhythm chaos." Specially recorded whale vocalizations play intermittently throughout the work and include the songs of humpback whales and bowhead whales. The whale recordings were done by Roger Payne and Frank Watlington, from the album "Songs of the Humpback Whale". Larry Rohter of "The New York Times" said the piece "can veer toward kitsch." Edward Greenfield of "Gramophone" similarly gave the work mixed praise, stating: And God Created Great Whales And God Created Great Whales, Op.