Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA20477 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 24 Aug 2000 20:45:27 +0100 Subject: Fwd: Dolphins Show Language-Like Learning, Researchers Say Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 15:41:07 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas est veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20000824194202.AAA19061@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
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Date: 08/24/00 15:09
Received: 08/24/00 15:25
WASHINGTON (AP) - Researchers eavesdropping on the underwater signals
between dolphins found that the mammals quickly learn and repeat intricate
signals from their friends, an ability thought to be an important step
toward evolving a language.
Analysis of more than 1,700 whistle signals exchanged between bottlenose
dolphins swimming along the Moray Firth coast of Scotland showed that the
animals routinely responded to each other with matching signals, often
echoing identical whistles within seconds of each other.
This trading of signals suggests the dolphins are capable of "vocal
learning," a prerequisite for evolving a spoken language, according to
researcher Vincent M. Janik. A report on his study appears Friday in the
journal Science.
Janik, a Scottish biologist now at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
in Massachusetts, said that the signaling pattern of the dolphins is
similar to what experts believe happened when ancient human beings first
began organized speech.
Matching or labeling communication, he said in the study, "has been
hypothesized to have been an important step in the evolution of human
language."
Although birds, such as parrots, are well known for their ability to
imitate sounds made by others, "bottlenose dolphins are the only nonhuman
mammals in which matching interactions with learned signal types have been
found."
Janik said that the dolphins apparently use the matching whistle patterns
to address each other and that the sounds may play a role in signaling
membership of a group.
Earlier studies have shown that young dolphins adopt a signature whistle
pattern, rather like a name, early in life. Janik's study showed that the
mammals may use these signature whistles as a way of addressing a specific
animal who may be swimming many feet away.
"Janik provides important evidence that vocal labeling is used by wild
dolphins for social communication," Peter L. Tyack, a Woods Hole
researcher, said in a commentary in Science.
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