This thread is dedicated to dolphins.

Here is an interesting fact number one:

Did you you know that the brain surface area of Aphalina dolphins is 3 times larger than human's ?

Did you you know that the brain volume of Aphalina dolphins is 1.5 times larger than human's ?


I LOVE DOLPHINS !!!

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/kinser/Size1.html

Oh...I expected to see Marino, OJ, and Jason Taylor. Not an actual dolphin. :cool:

No OJ in this thread, thank God.

Another fact about dolphins that doesn;t involve any sort of bodily fluid, the dolphin is known as the "friend of man" in mythology, i think that's a good description and try not to eat too much dolphin meat accidentally - but at least half those ****ers who catch tuna and can it are getting some dolphin in there

Another fact about dolphins that doesn;t involve any sort of bodily fluid, the dolphin is known as the "friend of man" in mythology, i think that's a good description and try not to eat too much dolphin meat accidentally - but at least half those ****ers who catch tuna and can it are getting some dolphin in there


Sadly I have read that Japaneese eat Dolphins.

National Science Foundation
Press release, October 27, 2004

HUMANS AND DOLPHINS: IF BRAIN SIZE IS A MEASURE, WE'RE NOT THAT DIFFERENT

Arlington, Va. -- Scientists have determined how brain size changed in dolphins and their relatives over the past 47 million years, and how these species evolved in relation to humans. The results of their research, published on-line this week in the journal The Anatomical Record, show that, in terms of brain size, humans and dolphins aren't that different.

Lead scientist on the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project is Lori Marino of Emory University in Atlanta; colleagues Daniel McShea from Duke University in North Carolina and Mark Uhen from the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield, Michigan, are co-investigators on the study.

Dolphin brains are four to five times larger than would be expected for their body size when compared to another animal of similar size. In humans, the measure is seven times larger. "Essentially, the brains of primates and cetaceans arrived at the same cognitive space while evolving along different paths," Marino says. "What the data say to me is that we, as humans, are not that special. Although we are highly encephalized [have large brains], it's not by much compared with cetaceans."

The scientists investigated the fossil record of the toothed whales (which includes dolphins, porpoises, belugas and narwhals) from the order Cetacea, suborder Odontoceti. Many modern toothed whale species (Odontocetes) have extremely large brains -- significantly larger than expected for their body sizes and second only to those of modern humans.

"A description of the pattern of encephalization [brain size] in toothed whales has enormous potential to yield new insights into Odontocete evolution: whether there are shared features with hominoid brain evolution, and more generally how large brains evolve," Marino says.

To investigate how the large brains of Odontocetes changed over time, Marino and her colleagues quantified and averaged estimates of brain and body size for fossil cetacean species using computed tomography (CT) scanning, and analyzed these data along with those for modern Odontocetes.

The only data previously available were from a small handful of fossils that provided a very limited record. Marino and her colleagues gathered data and tracked down fossils at the Smithsonian Institution and other museums. A total of 66 fossil crania were CT-scanned and measured. This subset was added to brain and body weight data from 144 modern cetacean specimens.

"The research produced the first understanding of the pattern of change in cetacean brain size relative to body size over 47 million years," says Rich Lane, program director in NSF's division of earth sciences, which funded the research. "Brain size, it turns out, increased significantly in two critical phases in the evolution of these animals."

The first brain size increase occurred with the origin of Odontocetes from the ancestral group Archaeoceti nearly 39 million years ago and was accompanied by a decrease in body size. This change occurred with the emergence of the first cetaceans to develop echolocation -- the processing of high-frequency acoustic information used by modern dolphins and other Odontocetes, Marino says. The second major change occurred with the origin of the superfamily Delphinoidea (oceanic dolphins, porpoises, belugas and narwhals) about 15 million years ago. Both increases probably relate to changes in the animals' lifestyles.

Odontocetes have demonstrated behavioral faculties previously only ascribed to humans and other great apes. These abilities include mirror self-recognition, the comprehension of artificial, symbol-based communication systems and abstract concepts, and the learning and intergenerational transmission of behaviors that have been described as cultural. Their large brains likely have enabled these capabilities, says Marino.

The study was also funded by the SETI Institute.

Sadly I have read that Japaneese eat Dolphins.


The japanese will eat anything, they also eat TIGER PENISES because they believe it gives them the virilty of a tigre... The Japanese also invented bukkake

The japanese will eat anything, they also eat TIGER PENISES because they believe it gives them the virilty of a tigre... The Japanese also invented bukkake


bukkake? what's that?



...................................

Odontocetes have demonstrated behavioral faculties previously only ascribed to humans and other great apes. These abilities include mirror self-recognition, the comprehension of artificial, symbol-based communication systems and abstract concepts, and the learning and intergenerational transmission of behaviors that have been described as cultural. Their large brains likely have enabled these capabilities, says Marino.

wow, that's fascinating! i'm most impressed

bukkake? what's that?



...................................
Nautilus, i'm not sure you want know this, in fact i'm pretty sure you don't, but bukkake is a special kind of **** where 50 guys ( at least ) stand around in circle, in the middle of the circle is a girl, usually young looking, dressed like a schoolgirl, all 50 guys peel some chilis and shoot their wads all over her... sorry, i feel bad for traumatizing you, but i thought everyone knew what bukkake was, i guess everyone wasn't born in a sewer like me

Odontocetes have demonstrated behavioral faculties previously only ascribed to humans and other great apes. These abilities include mirror self-recognition, the comprehension of artificial, symbol-based communication systems and abstract concepts, and the learning and intergenerational transmission of behaviors that have been described as cultural. Their large brains likely have enabled these capabilities, says Marino.

wow, that's fascinating! i'm most impressed


Yep. That's a silly part of the official NSF release for "general public." Oh well, they could have done a better job with all the money they waste :)

Nautilus, i'm not sure you want know this, in fact i'm pretty sure you don't,....

OK. :o Sorry, I asked. I did not know. :o

How do dolphins sleep? :) :) :)


http://www.faqs.org/faqs/animals/dolphin-faq/part01/


Dolphins have to be conscious to breath (Williams et al, 1990).
This means that they cannot go into a full deep sleep, because
then they would suffocate.
Dolphins have "solved" that by letting one half of their brain
sleep at a time. This has been determined by doing EEG studies
on dolphins. Dolphins sleep about 8 hours a day in this fashion.
Recent research confirmed that dolphins have only one eye
closed when sleeping. The state (open or closed) of one eye
remains constant for on average an hour, after which it
switches state (Goley, 1999).
REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, usually associated with
dreaming has been recorded only very rarely. Some scientists
claim dolphins do not have REM sleep at all.

A dolphin's behavior when sleeping/resting depends on the
circumstances and possibly on individual preferences. They
can either:
- swim slowly and surface every now and then for a breath
- rest at the surface with their blowhole exposed
- rest on the bottom (in shallow water) and rise to the surface
every now and then to breath.

How do dolphins communicate and do they have their own
language?


http://www.faqs.org/faqs/animals/dolphin-faq/part01/

Dolphins communicate mainly by means of sounds. These
sounds include whistles, but also so-called pulsed sounds,
which are often described as squawks, barks, rasps, etc.
But they also use breaching (jumping and falling back into
the water with a loud splash) and pectoral fin (or flipper)
and tail (or fluke) slaps (hitting the flipper or fluke on
the water surface). Body posturing and jaw popping also have
a role in communication. This list is not exhaustive.

As for language, we do not know if they have one. Several
studies have demonstrated that dolphins can understand a
structured language like ours. This same has been demonstrated
for a number of other animals species as well (gorilla, bonobo,
California sea lion, parrot). Some studies also indicate that
dolphin vocalizations are complex enough to support some form
of language. However, to date it has not been demonstrated yet
that they indeed use a language for communication among
themselves.


-----------
Comments:

Aren't these guys too carefull in making sure that they state nothing certain?

How does dolphin sonar work?

Dolphins (and other toothed whales) can produce high pitched
clicks. When these clicks hit an object, some of the sound
will echo back to the "sender". By listening to the echo and
interpreting the time it took before the echo came back, the
dolphin estimate the distance of the object. (That's why sonar
is also called echolocation: with information from the echoes,
a dolphin can locate an object). Depending on the material the
object is made of, part of the sound may penetrate into the
object and reflect off internal structure. If the object is a
fish, some sound will reflect off the skin on the dolphin's
side, some of the bones, the internal organs and the skin on
the other side. So one click can result in a number of (weaker)
echoes. This will give the dolphin some information about the
structure and size of the fish. By moving its head (thereby
aiming the clicks at other parts of the fish) the dolphin
can get more information on other parts of the fish.

It is like a medical ultrasound probe, but the results are far
less clear. A medical probe moves back and forth very rapidly,
much faster than a dolphin can move its head. Also the
frequency of the sounds of the medical probe is much higher
than a dolphin's sonar. Therefore the level of detail
the echoes can provide is much higher in the medical probe.


source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/animals/dolphin-faq/part01/
---------------------


This is awesome! Can you now imagine how Dolphins see fish as a whole, both from outside and from inside?

They must have thousands of words to describe various kinds of fish, states of fish, and flavors of fish. :)




.................

Can dolphins see colors?

To able to see colors, the retina must have at least 2
different kinds of cones, with different sensitivities.
Most mammals have 2 types of cones: L-cones (sensitive to
long-wavelength light, red to green) and S-cones (sentitive
to short-wavelength light, blue to violet or near UV). Humans
and some other primates have 3 types of cones, giving them a
better color vision. Only a few landmammals have only one
type of cone, which means they are colorblind. All these
landmammals are essentially nocturnal animals.

Whales and dolphins (as well as seals and sea lions) have
only one type of cone: the L-cones. Although these cones are
more sensitive for short-wavelength light than the L-cones
of terrestrial mammals, they still have a very low sensitivity
for blue light. And because there is only one type of cone,
they are essentially colorblind (although in theory it is
possible that there is a very limited form of colorvision
in some light conditions, when both the rods and the cones
are active).

source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/animals/dolphin-faq/part01/

Another interesting fact about dolphins, when severely depressed people swim with the dolphins and spend some therapeutic time hanging out with them it seems they're depression goes away... Even before i heard of that it's easy to see the dolphin's empathetic nature. i have no doubt that they have a complex language and communication system, these mammals have higher consciousness... i've even heard theories that dolphins have a sort of eSP in addition to their sonar / echolocation. When i think about how a dog or cat can sense a storm coming long before we can see it, or that cats have dreams, we shouldn't kid ourselves that only humans have a higher consciousness

How did dolphins evolve?

The earliest recognizable cetaceans lived about 50 million
years ago. These evolved from the Mesonychids: large land
mammals, some of which were carnivorous, some herbivorous.
The earliest cetaceans were members of the now extinct family
Archaeoceti (the best known of which are Zeuglodon and
Basilosaurus). 38-25 million years ago the Archaeoceti
disappeared and were replaced by the early Odontocetes (toothed
whales) and Mysticetes (baleen whales). The earliest dolphins
appeared in the late Miocene period, some 11 million years ago.

The land animals that are closest to whales and dolphins are
the Ungulates (hoofed animals). This was determined among
others by comparing the structure of body proteins.

Another interesting fact about dolphins, when severely depressed people swim with the dolphins and spend some therapeutic time hanging out with them it seems they're depression goes away... Even before i heard of that it's easy to see the dolphin's empathetic nature. i have no doubt that they have a complex language and communication system, these mammals have higher consciousness... i've even heard theories that dolphins have a sort of eSP in addition to their sonar / echolocation. When i think about how a dog or cat can sense a storm coming long before we can see it, or that cats have dreams, we shouldn't kid ourselves that only humans have a higher consciousness

Great points.

I too hope that they have eSP and higher consciousness. There are numerous accounts of dolphins having empathy to people.

Dont know too much about Dolphins, but I was at Sea World yesterday and I saw the Dolphin show, then I got to actually pet a Dolphin! It was pretty cool. :D

Another interesting fact is that back in the day Sega Genesis released a game about a Dolphin...Echo the Dolphin..

What and how much do dolphins eat?

Bottlenose dolphins eat several kinds of fish (including
mullet, mackerel, herring, cod) and squid. The compostion of
the diet depends very much on what is available in the area
they live in and also on the season.
The amount of fish they eat depends on the fish species they
are feeding on: mackerel and herring have a very high fat
content and consequently have a high caloric value, whereas
squid has a very low caloric value, so to get the same energy
intake (calories) they will need to eat much more if they feed
on squid than if they feed on mackerel or herring.
On average an adult dolphin will eat 4-9% of its body weight
in fish, so a 250 kg (550 lb) dolphin will eat 10-22.5 kg
(22-50 lb) fish per day.

http://neptune.atlantis-intl.com/dolphins/img/co01.jpg

http://neptune.atlantis-intl.com/dolphins/img/co03.jpg

http://neptune.atlantis-intl.com/dolphins/img/co02.jpg

Thanks Nautilus for all the posts, i find this thread is really relaxing

Whales are cool too.

http://www.dolphin-isl-greenware.org/images/whalepics/humpback4.jpg

http://www.photovault.com/Link/Animals/OceanSeaMammels/Cetacea/AOCVolume01/AOCV01P02_17.jpg

Dont know too much about Dolphins, but I was at Sea World yesterday and I saw the Dolphin show, then I got to actually pet a Dolphin! It was pretty cool. :D

the one in ocean beach/ mission bay?

I like Manatee too

http://www.nsis.org/gallery/img/manatee_n1.jpg

I like when I'm having a tuna sandwich, & I can taste a little Dolphin meat in there. That's a lucky catch on the part of the fisherman.

Seriously.....Dolphins are wonderful creatures. I believe anyone who would intentionally kill either a dolphin or a manatee...is a demented **** who should be given a lethal injection.

I like when I'm having a tuna sandwich, & I can taste a little Dolphin meat in there. That's a lucky catch on the part of the fisherman.

Seriously.....Dolphins are wonderful creatures. I believe anyone who would intentionally kill either a dolphin or a manatee...is a demented **** who should be given a lethal injection.

Agreed. They should be fed to the sharks.