Watch the first sperm whale birth caught on video by scientists

ancestor: A predecessor. It could be a family forebear, such as a parent, grandparent or great-great-great grandparent. Or it could be a species, genus, family or other order of organisms from which some later one evolved. For instance, ancient dinosaurs are the ancestors of today’s birds. (antonym: descendant)

Atlantic: One of the world’s five oceans, it is second in size only to the Pacific. It separates Europe and Africa to the east from North and South America to the west.

audio: Having to do with sound.

behavior: The way something (often a person or other organism) conducts itself or acts towards others.

calf: (plural: calves) The name of young animals in a range of mammalian species, from cattle to walruses.

Caribbean: The name of a sea that runs from the Atlantic Ocean in the East to Mexico and Central American nations in the West, and from the southern coasts of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico down to the northern coasts of Venezuela and Brazil. The term is also used to refer to the culture of nations that border on or are islands in the sea.

cetaceans: The order of marine mammals that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. The baleen whales ( Mysticetes ) filter their food from the water with big baleen plates. The remaining cetaceans ( Odontoceti ) include some 70 species of toothed animals that include beluga whales, narwhals, killer whales (a type of dolphin) and porpoises.

common ancestor: Also known as shared ancestor. It’s an ancestor that two or more descendants have in common. Two siblings share a parent as a common ancestor. This also applies on the level of species and groups of organisms. Two or more species can share a common ancestor at the genus level. Two or more genera can share a common ancestor at the family level, and so on. Tigers and lions have a common ancestor, as do humans and Neandertals.

dolphins: A highly intelligent group of marine mammals that belong to the toothed-whale family. Members of this group include orcas (killer whales), pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins.

drone: A remote-controlled, pilotless aircraft or missile.

evolve: (adj. evolving) To change gradually over generations, or a long period of time. In living organisms, such an evolution usually involves random changes to genes that will then be passed along to an individual’s offspring. These can lead to new traits, such as altered coloration, new susceptibility to disease or protection from it, or different shaped features (such as legs, antennae, toes or internal organs).

footage: (in movies and videos) A term for the uncut or unprocessed motion pictures or video imagery taken by a camera. It takes its name from the fact that it took several feet of film to capture a few seconds of motion-picture photography.

killer whale: A dolphin species (Orcinus orca) whose name means whale killer. These animals belong to the order of marine mammals known as Cetacea (or cetaceans).

kin: Family or relatives (sometimes even distant ones).

literally: An adjective indicating that the phrase it modifies is precisely true. For instance, to say: “It’s so cold that I’m literally dying,” means that this person actually expects to soon be dead, the result of getting too cold.

mammal: An animal distinguished by possessing hair or fur, the secretion of milk by females for the feeding of their young, and (typically) the bearing of live young. They also are warm-blooded (or endothermic).

marine biologist: A scientist who studies creatures that live in ocean water, from bacteria and shellfish to kelp and whales.

marine mammal: Any of many types of mammals that spend most of its life in the ocean environment. These include whales and dolphins, walruses and sea lions, seals and sea otters, manatees and dugongs — even polar bears.

predator: (adjective: predatory) A creature that preys on other animals for most or all of its food.

profound: The quality of being great in magnitude or very intense. Or it can describe a person who is insightful and/or has great knowledge.

sea: An ocean (or region that is part of an ocean). Unlike lakes and streams, seawater — or ocean water — is salty.

species: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

sperm whale: A species of enormous whale with small eyes and a small jaw in a squarish head that takes up 40 percent of its body. Their bodies can span 13 to 18 meters (43 to 60 feet), with adult males being at the bigger end of that range. These are the deepest diving of marine mammals, reaching depths of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) or more. They can stay below the water for up to an hour at a time in search of food, mostly giant squids.

whale: A common, but fairly imprecise, term for a class of large mammals that lives in the ocean. This group includes dolphins and porpoises.