Many of the traits we think of as uniquely human can be get in at least a handful of animal species , but names really are almost unheard of outside our coinage . The reason why I have to say “ almost ” ? see no further than everyone ’s favorite exemplar of non - human intelligence agency , the dolphinfish .
A team of researchers at Scotland ’s University of St. Andrews have found that bottlenose dolphinfish grow unequaled whistles that they use to call out to and place their fellow member of the pod . This finding build onprevious researchthat had identified these strange whistles , which would only be ground in specific population and understandably had some role in the communicating appendage .
https://gizmodo.com/wild-dolphins-will-greet-one-another-by-exchanging-name-5889406
To better understand the aim of these telephone call , Dr. Vincent Janik and his team memorialize the various signature sound for a population of wild bottlenoses , then played those sounds as well as some unfamiliar calls back to the dolphins . When a given sound was played , the dolphin to which it corresponded would answer back , which Dr. Janik argues is interchangeable to a human recognise the sound of their own name . None of the dolphin answer to the unfamiliar sound , which suggests these were not just random responses .
So why have dolphinfish developed their equivalent of names when no other know species ( except possibly parrots ) have done likewise?As Dr. Janik excuse to BBC News , it might all be down to the distinct deficiency of other way for mahimahi to identify each other :
( dolphinfish ) live in this three - dimensional environment , offshore without any kind of landmarks and they need to stay together as a chemical group . These animals live in an environment where they want a very effective system to stay in touch . Most of the fourth dimension they ca n’t see each other , they ca n’t use smell underwater , which is a very important sense in mammal for identification , and they also do n’t tend to cling out in one office , so they do n’t have nest or burrow that they yield to . ”
The investigator ’ findings are published in the late offspring of PNAS .
[ BBC ]
BiologyDolphinMarine biologyNamesScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the good technical school , scientific discipline , and culture news program in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
