Posted: 6/9/2005 2:06:09 PM EDT
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www.dailybreeze.com/news/nationworld/articles/1606871.html WASHINGTON -- Some dolphins living off the coast of Australia apparently teach offspring to protect their snouts with sponges while foraging for food in the sea floor. Researchers say it appears to be a cultural behavior passed on from mother to daughter, a first for animals of this type, although such learning has been seen in other species. The dolphins, living in Shark Bay, Western Australia, use conically shaped whole sponges that they tear off the bottom, said Michael Kruetzen, lead author of a report on the dolphins in today's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. "Cultural evolution, including tool use, is not only found in humans and our closest relatives, the primates, but also in animals that are evolutionally quite distant from us. This convergent evolution is what is so fascinating," said Kruetzen. Researchers suspect the sponges help the foraging dolphins avoid getting stung by stonefish and other critters that hide in the sandy sea bottom, just as a gardener might wear gloves to protect the hands. Kruetzen and colleagues analyzed 13 "spongers" and 172 "non-spongers" and concluded that the practice seems to be passed along family lines, primarily from mothers to daughters. "Teaching requires close observation by the pupil," Kruetzen said. "Offspring spend up to four years before they are weaned, so they would have ample time to observe their mum doing it -- if she is a sponger." 
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+1 Cultural evolution can also drive physical evolution (in theory) in some cases. There is a theory that living in close knit groups caused our ancestors to develop larger brains, idea being that daily survival became somewhat easier with the whole group hunting and sharing, and there was more time for communication, etc. Both are important and often inter-linked. |
Isn't it amazing that God created an animal that can do that. Praise be to God!
Ditto. A dolphin is just another one of God's beautiful creations. Some people think that's a "slam" because we aren't putting an animal above or equal to a human. I tend to agree that humans CAN BE of a higher order than animals. I threw the "CAN BE" in there because SO many humans choose not to be any more intelligent or compassionate than the animals... including about half of GD. An animal is what it is. Human beings who choose to act like animals will on the other hand be held accountable for their poor choices... |
