Dolphins are smarter than humans- a phrase that ridicules the mental abilities of a person by comparing his intelligence with the intelligence of dolphins. Such memes usually talk about stupid actions and senseless disputes that are inherent in a person. And the dolphin, which does not commit such acts, is opposed to all this.

Origin

It is believed that dolphins are the most intelligent mammals on the planet after humans. However, the meme is most likely based on the text from chapter 23 of the humorous book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979).

On planet Earth, it was generally accepted that the intelligence of a person is higher than the intelligence of a dolphin, on the simple basis that man has created so many useful things - the wheel, New York, wars, etc. - while the dolphins just chilled themselves in the water. But dolphins, on the contrary, have always considered themselves much smarter than humans - for the same reason. Douglas Adams

Meme "Dolphins are smarter than people" can exist both in the form of plain text and in the form of a picture. The most well-established macro contains an image of a hypothetical scientist who concludes: “This is how dolphins once again proved that they are one of the smartest creatures on Earth.”

Meaning

The dolphin meme makes fun of hobbies, stupid actions, and the generally familiar image of people. This is expressed in the fact that the dolphin answers the next senseless dispute “I don’t care”, thereby confirming its intelligence.

Some memes, on the same principle, make fun of things and phenomena familiar to people. Have you ever seen a dolphin paying tuition for 5 years to work outside of their profession? No. Because a dolphin is smarter than a human.

Gallery

Ecology

Dolphins are cute and friendly sea creatures that are often confused with fish. However, dolphins are intelligent and inquisitive mammals whose mental abilities many surprise scientists.

Dolphins have evolved complex abilities living in the harsh conditions of the oceans and seas. For example, did you know that dolphins can stay awake for long periods of time, have unique spatial orientation abilities, have a magnetic sense, and can even control blood flow in their bodies?

Dolphin brain

Dolphins can't sleep

All animals on the planet need sleep, including humans. The world record for sleep deprivation belongs to Randy Gardner who hasn't slept in 11 days. However, already on the 4th day he began to hallucinate.

If a person does not sleep, he will eventually die. The same thing will happen to any creature with developed brain functions, except for the dolphins who, as it turns out, have learned to deprive themselves of sleep and still feel great. For example, baby dolphins do not sleep in the first month of their lives in the same way as their parents.


The thing is that these amazing creatures can turn off half of your brain for some time. Scientists continuously tested the reactions of dolphins for 5 days, and as it turned out, their reactions did not slow down. Blood tests for signs of stress or insomnia were negative. Dolphins can use this ability indefinitely.

Another study showed that dolphins can use echolocation for 15 consecutive days with almost perfect precision. This makes sense, as it allows the animals to always be on the alert and notice the approach of predators.


However, the most surprising thing is that part of the dolphin's brain is still asleep. At the same time, visual information begins to be processed by another, active part of the brain. In other words, if a dolphin "turns off" part of its brain, the second part of it can take on all the functions of the first. It's like having two brains instead of one.

Dolphin vision

Amazing vision of dolphins

It is known that dolphins use echolocation in order to navigate the world in which they live. Since visibility is poor in the depths of the sea, it is easier for animals to use sounds to "see" objects. You might think that they do not need vision at all, but this is not so.


Dolphin vision much better than it might seem. Firstly, their eyes are located on both sides of their heads, which allows them to cover a huge area. at 300 degrees. They can see what is behind. Second, each eye moves independently of the other, allowing the animals to look in different directions at the same time.

Dolphins also have reflective cell layer, which is located behind the retina and is called tapetem lucidem. This allows them to see perfectly in low light. Moreover, dolphins see just as well above the surface of the water as they can see underwater.

Dolphin skin

You may be wondering why dolphins are not latched onto by other marine life, such as barnacles. Whales are often hung with these creatures, but dolphins seem to have immunity. Dolphin skin always looks smooth, clean and shiny. What is her secret?


Unique dolphin skin has a lot of advantages. Firstly, the top layer of the skin - the epidermis - in dolphins is not rougher than in humans, it is in 10-20 times thinner than the epidermis of any land animal. However, it is growing 9 times faster than ours.


The unique lungs of dolphins

Dolphins are known to be excellent swimmers. For example, a bottlenose dolphin can hold its breath while underwater, up to 12 minutes while diving deep up to 550 meters! They are capable of this thanks to their unique lungs.

Although the lungs of these animals are no larger than ours, they work much more efficiently. With every breath the dolphin changes about 80 percent or more air in the lungs. We can only change 17 percent.


The blood and muscles of dolphins can accumulate and transport a huge amount of oxygen due to the fact that in the body of animals more red blood cells. This means a higher concentration of hemoglobin than in humans.

However, all this cannot fully explain how dolphins manage to hold their breath for so long and dive to such depths. Turns out the dolphins able to direct blood flow in the right direction. For example, during deep-sea diving, blood moves from the limbs to the heart and brain, improving their performance in extreme conditions.

Wound healing in dolphins

When injured, dolphins are able to miraculously restore health. From the point of view of science, their ability to recover is comparable with something fantastic.

For example, dolphins can survive severe injuries and can regenerate large amounts of damaged flesh in just a couple of weeks. Moreover, their appearance is able to return to its original form. without any scars or deformities.


By the way, dolphins also there is no bleeding. For example, a person with a serious open injury may die only due to blood loss. When injured, the dolphin directs the blood flow in the right direction in the same way as it does when diving, which does not allow it to bleed out.

Dolphin natural painkillers

Dolphins don't seem to care about inconveniences like physical pain. After they receive serious injuries that would immobilize any living creature on the planet, they can safely continue to play, swim and even eat normally.

With open wounds in dolphins, nerve endings are not exposed, which causes severe pain. This does not mean that they do not experience pain at all, they are also very sensitive, like us.

However, when seriously injured, dolphins just know how to.. ignore her. It is believed that their body is able to produce special painkillers, such as morphine, which, however, do not cause any addiction.


Dolphins developed such abilities during evolution, which allowed them to survive in dangerous conditions. For example, if a predator is chasing you, it is better not to show him that you are injured and that you are in pain. Then you have more likely to survive and not draw attention to yourself as weak and helpless.

Dolphins and infections

With open wounds on their bodies, dolphins are able to swim in water teeming with bacteria, and at the same time not pick up any infections. They don't even seem to be afraid of wounds from dirty shark teeth. A person in this situation would immediately die from blood poisoning within a few days. However, dolphins at least that!

It turns out that no infections cling to dolphins. It is known that the immune system of these animals is similar to ours, but how then do they manage to ward off all infection?

In fact, no one can say for sure where dolphins have such miraculous abilities. There is speculation that dolphins get some sort of antibiotics from plankton and algae.


The chemicals that these microscopic creatures produce have been found in dolphin subcutaneous fat. If the fat layer is damaged by injury, antibacterial substances are released.

How do dolphins manages to accumulate these life-saving substances under the skin, and not to process them during metabolism, remains a mystery to scientists.

Dolphins are the best swimmers

In 1936 the British zoologist Sir James Gray I was amazed at how fast dolphins can swim. He began to study their anatomy in great detail and found out that the skin of dolphins should have magical properties, which would prevent friction, only then would they be able to develop such a speed. This idea has been called "Grey's Paradox" and until 2008, scientists could not solve it.


Gray was partially right: dolphins do have anti-friction features. However, Gray underestimated the muscle strength of dolphins, which is 5 times greater than the muscle strength of the strongest person on the planet. Moreover, dolphins also know how to use their energy very efficiently.


A person can use only 4 percent of their energy to move through the water. Dolphins, in turn, transform 80 percent energy into thrust, making them the most efficient swimmers.

Dolphins magnetic sense

Why do dolphins and whales sometimes thrown ashore? This mystery has puzzled the minds of scientists for many years. Various theories have been proposed: strange diseases, environmental pollution, or testing of military equipment. However, research has not supported either of these theories.

Cases when animals washed ashore were recorded for many hundreds of years, but only recently scientists began to guess what main reason: it turns out that it's all about the Sun and the magnetic field of our planet.


The brains of dolphins and whales have special magnetic crystals, which allow them to sense the Earth's magnetic field. With the help of this built-in GPS system, they can move around the vast expanses of the ocean, orienting themselves in space without much difficulty.

One group of researchers mapped the east coast of the United States, where mass deaths of dolphins. As it turned out, these areas coincided with places where magnetic rocks lowered the levels of the planet's magnetic field.


Thus, a dolphin or whale that navigates by a magnetic field could simply "not notice" shore and landed on dry land.

Scientists also found that when the sun emits too much radiation, it affects the magnetic senses of marine mammals and also confuses them. Most animals wash ashore when the activity of the Sun is at its strongest. This may also explain why rescued animals return to shore again.

Dolphin electroreception

The echo sounders in the body of dolphins are truly incredible. Amazes their ability feel objects in the distance. Animals are able to send sound signals and listen to echoes reflected from objects.

If we add to this rare feeling the rest of the abilities of dolphins, which were mentioned above, we can conclude that dolphins really have fantastic feelings and abilities that distinguishes them from other living beings.


However, mother nature endowed them with something else: electroreception - the ability to feel electrical impulses sent by other living beings.

Guyanese dolphins live off the coast of South America and look similar to bottlenose dolphins. Researchers have found special indentations in their beaks, which are able to recognize electrical impulses sent by the muscles of fish.


A similar feature is found in animals such as platypuses. They use it to find fish hiding in the mud. Echolocation allows dolphins to determine the position of objects in space, but it not particularly effective at close range, so electroreception comes into play.

Over the past 47 million years, dolphin brains have evolved to a size never seen before in other animals. The new, most extensive study of the fossil remains of these marine inhabitants has set itself the goal of describing the dynamics of the corresponding evolutionary development. Indirectly, this may help to answer the question of how people themselves became so "brainy".

As you know, dolphins are capable of "intellectual feats" inaccessible to other animals. So, they can recognize themselves in the mirror, like humans and some higher primates. Of course, everything this is associated with the truly gigantic brain size of dolphins. Thus, in some species, the ratio of brain mass to total body mass can only be compared with that of humans. But at what pace the development of the brain of dolphins took place, still remained a mystery.

Three researchers, led by American biologist Lori Marino at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, tracked the evolutionary changes in the dolphin brain using fossils.

After four years of working among museum collections, this team of scientists has identified 66 fossil skulls of ancestral dolphins, adding to the five previously studied. The brain sizes of these specimens were calculated using methods computed tomography(computed tomography - CT), and estimates of animal body mass were obtained by analyzing the size of the bones at the base of the skulls.

Fossil skulls up to 47 million years old have been studied. They were compared with 144 modern specimens, as a result of which the so-called EQ(encephalisation quotient - "coefficient of braininess") of each such creature. This coefficient connects the mass of the brain of a particular specimen with the average value of one or another type of animal of similar size, and if EQ is less than one, then this means that we are dealing with an "underdeveloped" creature, but if EQ > 1, then the brain considered relatively large. Humans are smarter than all other animals in this sense, with an EQ of about 7.

Remaining elements in the skeletons of dolphins confirm that they are descended from some kind of terrestrial quadrupedal mammals.

Blood tests suggested that cetaceans, which include dolphins, and ungulates are relatives. Once they returned from land to the water element (perhaps this was due to some kind of global catastrophe), eventually losing their hind limbs and acquiring fins.

Approximately 35 million years ago, these pinnipeds were the size of a small whale.- Approximately 9 meters long, had sharp teeth and an EQ of about 0.5.

And from that moment on, a mysterious change occurs: the old species inexplicably die out, being replaced by a new group called Odontoceti (a suborder of toothed whales).

The new study shows that all of these creatures were much smaller than before, had smaller teeth, but they dramatically increased the size of the brain. Their EQ jumped to 2,5 - a phenomenon that Marino associates with the development of echolocation skills, that is, the use of sound waves to locate objects under water.

The study also shows that approximately 8 of the 67 species of Odontoceti (including dolphins) went through a second EQ increase approximately 15 million years ago, reaching coefficients 4 and 5 , although the reasons for this second evolutionary leap remain completely unexplained.

There is only one similar case of "explosive" development of "mental abilities" among large animals, known to scientists today: over five million years of human history, EQ has grown from approximately 2.5 to 7. At the same time, the "mental abilities" of the rest of the "dolphin tribe For some reason, it went down.

"There is a myth that the development of life forms is always accompanied by an increase in brain size, Marino says. - However, from the point of view of animal metabolism (metabolism), mental abilities are very expensive, and therefore, according to the logic of evolutionary development, you need to have some extremely good reasons in order to "get" yourself a big brain". She adds that, according to another scientific myth, only one kind of creature with a large brain can develop at the same time and in the same place. However, new work shows that for 15 million years, many different species of dolphins and whales have happily coexisted in the ocean together.

Contact between humans and dolphins is one of the favorite subjects of science fiction. Moreover, the intelligence of dolphins in literature has become such a common place that, according to a number of American authors (Larry Niven, David Brin, etc.), dolphins in the future, together with people, will even be able to explore and populate the Galaxy.

Dolphins are the most intelligent creatures created by nature. For many centuries, their behavior has attracted and excited the imagination of people. Meeting with them can cause a storm of enthusiastic emotions. Myths and legends were written about their life. And the extraordinary abilities of these animals remain a mystery at the present time.

Into the depths of centuries

Dolphins appeared on Earth more than 70 million years ago. Their origin, which explains the developed mental abilities, is shrouded in legends and secrets no less than the appearance of man. People have been studying how the dolphin brain works, their intelligence and habits for many centuries. However, these animals were able to study us much better. For a short period they lived on land, on which they left the reservoir, and then returned back to the water. To date, scientists have not been able to explain this phenomenon. However, there is an assumption that when people find a common language with dolphins, they will be able to tell us a lot about their lives. However, this is unlikely.

Weird facts about the dolphin brain

Scientists in many countries of the world are haunted by the brain of a dolphin. They try to understand how it works. These amazing animals, with social skills, trainable and understanding human behavior, are certainly different from other representatives of the fauna. Their brains have undergone unprecedented development over the past few tens of millions of years. One of the differences between dolphin and human brains is that animals have learned to turn off one half of the brain so that it can rest. These are the only representatives of the animal world, of course, except for people who are able to communicate in their own language, through the most complex combination of various sounds and clicks. Scientists have found that dolphins have the foundations of logical thinking, that is, the highest form of mind development. And this amazing fact has been found in mammals. These animals are able to solve the most complex riddles, find answers to difficult questions and adjust their behavior to the circumstances set by a person. The brain of a dolphin is larger than the human brain, so the brain of an adult animal weighs 1 kg 700 g, and the human brain weighs 300 g less. The convolutions in a person are two times less than in a dolphin. Researchers have collected materials on the presence of these representatives not only of self-consciousness, but also of social consciousness. The number of nerve cells also exceeds their number in humans. Animals are capable of echolocation. An acoustic lens, which is located on the head, focuses sound waves (ultrasound), with the help of which the dolphin, as it were, feels the existing underwater objects and determines their shape. The next amazing ability is the ability to feel the magnetic poles. In the brain of dolphins, there are special magnetic crystals that help them navigate the water surface of the ocean.

The brain of a dolphin and a human: a comparison

Dolphin is, of course, the most intelligent and intelligent animal on the planet. Scientists have found that when air passes through the nasal passages, sound signals are formed in them. These amazing animals for communication use:

  • about sixty basic sound signals;
  • up to five levels of their various combinations;
  • the so-called vocabulary of about 14 thousand signals.

The average human vocabulary is the same amount. In everyday life, he manages 800-1000 different words. In the case of translating a dolphin's signal into a human one, it will most likely resemble a hieroglyph denoting a word and an action. The ability of animals to communicate is considered a sensation. The difference between the brain of a human and a dolphin lies in the number of convolutions, the latter has twice as many.

Dolphin DNA study

Australian scientists after comparing the DNA of humans and dolphins concluded that these mammals are our closest relatives. As a result, the legend was developed that they are descendants of people who lived in Atlantis. And after these highly civilized inhabitants went into the ocean, no one knows exactly what happened to them. According to legend, they turned into inhabitants of the deep sea and retained love for a person in memory of a past life. Adherents of this beautiful legend argue that since there is a similarity between the intellect, DNA structures and the human brain with a dolphin, then people have a common beginning with them.

Dolphin abilities

Ichthyologists, who study the phenomenal abilities of dolphins, claim that they take the second place in terms of the level of intelligence development after humans. But the great apes are only the fourth.
If we compare the brain of a human and a dolphin, then the weight of the brain in an adult animal is from 1.5 to 1.7 kg, which is certainly more than that of humans. And, for example, the ratio of body to brain size in chimpanzees is significantly lower than in dolphins. A complex chain of relationships and collective organization indicates the existence of a special civilization of these living beings.

Test results conducted by scientists

When comparing the brain weight of a human and a dolphin and their body mass, the ratio will be the same. During tests on the level of mental development, these creatures showed amazing results. It turned out that by only nineteen points, dolphins scored less points than humans. Scientists concluded that animals are able to understand human thinking and have good analytical abilities.
One well-known neurophysiologist in the scientific community, who worked with dolphins for quite a long time, made the following conclusion - that these representatives of the animal world would be the first to establish contact, and consciously, with human civilization. And the fact that dolphins have an individual highly developed language, excellent memory and mental abilities that allow them to pass on accumulated knowledge and experience from generation to generation will help dolphins in communication. Another assumption of scientists is that if these animals had developed limbs differently, they would be able to write, due to the similarity of their minds with the human.

Some Features

During a disaster that caught in the sea or ocean, dolphins save a person. Eyewitnesses tell how the animals drove away predatory sharks for several hours, not giving any chance to approach the person, and then helped them swim to the shore. It is this attitude that is typical for adults to their offspring. Perhaps they perceive a person in trouble as their cub. The superiority of these representatives of the animal world over other inhabitants lies in their monogamy. Unlike other animals that look for a mate only for mating and easily change partners, dolphins choose them for life. They live in large families, together with the elderly and children, taking care of them throughout their life span. Thus, the absence of polygamy, which is present in almost all inhabitants of the fauna, indicates their higher stage of development.

The subtle hearing of dolphins

The uniqueness lies in the fact that the ability to reproduce a special sound with the help of a sound wave helps to navigate in the expanses of water over long distances. Dolphins emit a so-called click, which, having stumbled upon an obstacle, returns to them in the form of a special impulse that propagates through the water at great speed.
The closer the subject is, the faster the echo will return. Developed intelligence allows them to estimate the distance to an obstacle with maximum accuracy. In addition, the dolphin transmits the information received over great distances to its fellows using special signals. Each animal has its own name, and by the characteristic intonations of the voice, they are able to distinguish all members of the pack.

Language development and onomatopoeia

With the help of a special language, animals can explain to their fellows what needs to be done to get food. For example, during training sessions in a dolphinarium, they share information about which pedal to press in order for a fish to fall out. The human and dolphin brains are capable of producing sounds. The ability to imitate them in the latter is manifested in the ability of animals to accurately copy and transmit various sounds: the sound of wheels, the singing of birds. The uniqueness lies in the fact that in the recording it is impossible to distinguish where the real sound is and where the imitation is. In addition, dolphins are able to copy human speech, though not with such accuracy.

Dolphins - teachers and researchers

They teach their relatives with interest the knowledge and skills they possess. Dolphins take in information out of curiosity about learning new things, not under duress. There are cases when an animal that lived in a dolphinarium for a long time helped trainers teach their fellows various tricks. Unlike other seabed dwellers, they strike a balance between curiosity and danger. During surveys of new territories, a sea sponge is put on the nose, which can protect them from all sorts of troubles that will meet on the way.

Feelings and mind of an animal

It has been proven that the brain of a dolphin, like a human, is capable of expressing feelings. These animals can feel resentment, jealousy, love, and they will express these feelings quite easily. For example, if aggression or pain was applied to an animal during training, the dolphin will show indignation and will never work with such a person.
This just confirms that they have a long-term memory. Animals have a mind close to human. For example, in order to extract a fish from a rocky gap, they clamp a stick between their teeth and try to push the prey out with its help. The ability to use improvised means is reminiscent of the development of man when he first began to use tools.

  1. These animals have a well-developed intelligence.
  2. When comparing the brain of a dolphin and a human, it was found that the brain of the first, unlike the human, has more convolutions and is larger in size.
  3. Animals use both hemispheres in turn.
  4. The organs of vision are underdeveloped.
  5. Their unique hearing allows them to navigate superbly.
  6. The maximum speed that animals can develop is 50 km / h. However, it is available only to ordinary dolphins.
  7. In representatives of this genus, the regeneration of the dermis is much faster than in humans. They are not afraid of infections.
  8. The lungs take part in breathing. The organ by which dolphins grab air is called the blowhole.
  9. The body of the animal is able to produce a special substance, which is similar in mechanism of action to morphine. Therefore, they practically do not feel pain.
  10. With the help of taste buds, they are able to distinguish tastes, for example, bitter, sweet and others.
  11. Dolphins communicate with the help of sound signals, of which there are approximately 14,000 varieties.
  12. Scientists have experimentally proven that each newborn dolphin gets its own name and that they can recognize themselves in a mirror image.
  13. Animals are superbly trainable.
  14. To search for food, the most common bottlenose dolphins use a sea sponge, putting it on the sharpest part of the snout and thus examining the bottom in search of prey. The sponge serves as protection against sharp rocks or reefs.
  15. India has banned the keeping of dolphins in captivity.
  16. The inhabitants of Japan and Denmark hunt them and use the meat for food.
  17. In most countries, including Russia, these animals are kept in dolphinariums.

It is very difficult to list all the amazing abilities of dolphins, since every year people discover more and more new opportunities for these amazing inhabitants of nature.

In difficult periods of history, only aquatic organisms can survive on Earth?

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When the German physiologist M. Tiedemann saw the brain of a dolphin for the first time back in 1827, he was amazed. The brain of a dolphin turned out to be larger than that of a monkey and almost the same as that of a human.

Professor A. Portman from Switzerland conducted research on the mental abilities of animals and found out that according to the results of the test, a person came out on top - 215 points, a dolphin was on the second - 190 points, and an elephant was the third winner. The monkey took only fourth place.

When scientists compared the human and dolphin brains, it turned out that the average human brain weighs about 1.4 kg (Turgenev's largest is 2.12 kg). The brain of a dolphin pulls 1.7 kg. Moreover, the cortex has twice as many convolutions. Isn't this what explains the amazing quick wits and incredible quickness of thinking of the dolphin? He is able to assimilate the amount of knowledge 1.5 times more than you and I. In addition, dolphins have their own spoken language, with which they can communicate with each other and transmit the necessary information.

Why does a dolphin have such a large and complex brain? Of course, not just to eat, swim smartly, produce offspring.

This question interested scientists and they tried to establish who was the ancestor of the dolphin. Remaining elements in the skeleton of animals confirm that they originated from some kind of terrestrial quadrupedal mammals. Blood tests suggested that cetaceans, which include dolphins, and ungulates are relatives. But what made the dolphin ancestor change his terrestrial existence to a water one 65 million years ago, and who, in fact, was he?

It can be assumed that the whole thing is some kind of cosmic cataclysms that touched the Earth and forced animals to seek salvation in the water. After all, it was 65 million years ago that dinosaurs suddenly disappeared from the Earth. Finally, what was the land in those days: tiny islands in the vast expanse of the oceans. It could happen that someone did not have enough space on this small land.

Who knows, maybe the forerunner of man and dolphin was the same creature: having raised a stick from the ground, it went through a grandiose path of earthly evolution and became a man, and, returning to the sea, it became a dolphin.

Like it or not, it is difficult to say with accuracy. However, one thing is absolutely clear: if man is the crown of creation on Earth, then the dolphin is the crown of creation in the ocean, "the king of the expanses of the sea."

Dolphins give birth to babies in the water. At the time of childbirth, the female raises her tail high above the water, the dolphin is born in the air and has time to breathe before it falls into the water. For the first few hours, the baby dolphin swims like a float in an upright position, slightly moving its front flippers: it has accumulated a sufficient supply of fat in the womb, and its density is less than that of water. There is always a mother and one or two more females nearby.

The dolphin feeds on mother's milk for the first time. When sucking, the baby’s lips are replaced by a tongue rolled into a tube: he covers the mother’s nipple with it, and she splashes milk into his mouth. All this happens underwater: the respiratory canal is separated from the esophagus, and the dolphin can swallow food underwater without fear of choking. After 3 years, he becomes an adult. Dolphins live up to 30 years. Cubs are born once every 2 years.

Dolphins move easily and quickly in the water. With a sudden jump, he throws the body out of the water in order to take a breath. Their shiny bodies amaze with a perfectly streamlined shape, reminiscent of a drop or a torpedo. The muzzle is extended into a narrow beak, the nostrils are merged into one "blowhole", from which the animal can release a fountain of spray 1-1.5 m high.

An adult dolphin is capable of reaching speeds of over 50 km/h. This speed is facilitated not only by the streamlined shape of the body, but also by the special properties of the skin. The outer layer - about 1.5 mm - is extremely elastic. The inner layer with a thickness of about 4 mm consists of a dense fabric. Interestingly, the inner part of the outer layer is permeated with many passages and tubes filled with a soft fatty substance. By the way, artificial skin for submarines is similar in quality to dolphin skin.

Dolphins have complex audio signaling. They are able to create and perceive ultrasounds. Precise sonar makes it possible for them to detect objects the size of an acorn in water at a distance of up to 15 m. Thanks to echolocation, dolphins find food and avoid collisions with obstacles even in completely muddy water.

Examples

Once a passenger ship was wrecked. Several people survived. None of them believed that they could survive. And when they saw a flock of sharks approaching them, they said goodbye to each other. But suddenly a miracle happened. A flock of dolphins rushed from the open sea, fearlessly dispersing a flock of sharks. And she helped people stay afloat until help arrived.

An even more striking incident occurred with the fishermen in the same place in the Black Sea. A flock of dolphins surrounded the launch and swam nearby, making sounds and clearly trying to attract the attention of people. The dolphins circled around the ship until people realized that the animals were worried about something. Following them, they found a captured dolphin. Having fought off the flock, he got tangled in a fishing net. The cub was rescued and released.

The fate of the famous dolphin Tuffy, an honorary member of the American underwater expedition, is interesting. The dolphin worked as a postman and conductor, bringing appliances and tools. If one of the aquanauts swam too far into the sea and lost his bearings, Tuffy always came to the rescue and led the lost one to the house on a nylon leash. After such a brilliant debut, Tuffy was accepted into service at one of the US missile ranges. He searched the sea for the electronic devices of spent rocket stages. All equipment was crammed with miniature ultrasonic transmitters. The dolphin was in a hurry to their "call signs".

The dolphin Polorus Jack, so nicknamed by English sailors, has been guiding ships through the dangerous strait in New Zealand for 25 years as a real pilot.

Not so long ago, an absolutely amazing incident occurred in the marine aquarium in Miami. Several dolphins caught in the ocean were brought here for training. Not far from the recruits were already trained dolphins. They did not see each other. And yet, a conversation immediately began between them. All night long strange sounds and noises were heard from the pool. The unthinkable happened in the morning. The new dolphins immediately began to perform all the tricks that people intended to teach them. It seems that their brothers, who have long lived in the pool, told them about this.

V. Avdeenko.

The distant ancestors of dolphins lived on land. Only about 70 million years ago they went to live in the ocean. Why? Because in difficult periods of history, only aquatic organisms can survive on Earth. The longer people study dolphins, the less improbable the hypothesis seems that these mammals created their own civilization, indistinguishable in complexity from ours.

The level of mental development of dolphins is very high. To what extent, the person has not yet been able to establish. Perhaps this species is in no way inferior to Homo sapiens in terms of intelligence. The dolphin brain surpassed the human brain both in weight and in the number of convolutions and nerve cells in the cortex.

Dolphins have their own communication system, which is in no way inferior to human language. The language of dolphins includes both gestures (turns of the head, tail, fins, various postures, jumps) and various sounds, which are sound and ultrasonic impulses.

Only whistles in the language of dolphins, the researchers counted 32 varieties. Each of them carries certain information - a greeting signal, the call of relatives, an expression of alarm, and so on. Interestingly, some native tribes of the Canary Islands and Mexico at a great distance also communicate with the help of a whistle.

By scanning the language of dolphins using the Zipf method, scientists have received indisputable evidence that it serves to transmit information, like human speech. The Zipf method allows you to determine whether sounds carry informational meaning. Its essence lies in determining the frequency of repetition of identical letters in speech. In the form of a mathematical graph, the speech of intelligent beings has the form of an inclined line, and random noises are located strictly horizontally. So, the speech of dolphins had the same slope coefficient on the graph as the language of people.

It was possible to isolate about 200 communication signs in the vocabulary of communication of these mammals. But their deciphering is slow and difficult. The sound communication of dolphins occurs in the range up to 300 kHz, while humans communicate with each other in the frequency band up to 20 kHz. Like humans, dolphins' speech has six levels of organization, from sound to context. But if people begin to understand each other only from the third level (word), then dolphins communicate even with the help of monosyllabic sounds.

There are many similarities between humans and dolphins. And this applies not only to the complexity of the organization of speech. Dolphins live as long as people, create families, love to communicate, grow up at the same age. Depending on the region of habitat, the language of dolphins differs slightly, which allows us to draw a parallel with the national languages ​​of people.

American scientists have found that each dolphin at birth receives a name from its relatives (a certain form of whistle lasting 0.9 seconds), which it responds to throughout its life. Dolphins refer to each other by name when communicating.

If the dolphin is alone in the pool, then it is silent. But as soon as another individual appears nearby, they begin to reproduce the richest set of sounds.

The study shows that approximately eight of the 67 species of Odontoceti (including dolphins) went through an EQ increase approximately 15 million years ago, reaching factors of 4 and 5, although the reasons for this second evolutionary leap remain completely unclear (there is only one such case of "explosive" development "intelligence" among large animals, known to scientists today: over five million years of human history, EQ has increased from about 2.5 to 7). At the same time, the "mental abilities" of the rest of the "dolphin tribe" for some reason, on the contrary, decreased.