Dolphins are the smartest creatures on the planet. Are dolphins really as smart as they are said to be? Amazing vision of dolphins

(Pub. In Proceedings, THE 5TH WORLD MULTICONFERENCE ON SYSTEMICS, CYBERNETICS AND INFORMATICS SCI "2001,)
PROSPECTS OF INFORMATION
INTEGRATION OF HUMAN AND DOLPHIN INTELLIGENCES

A. G. Yushchenko

Email: [email protected]

Dolphin brain (Fig. L. Kruger and A. Bretnach) Human brain (Fig. R. Kopp)
/A.G. Tomilin, "Dolphins serve man", M.: Nauka, 1969, 248s./

Introduction. The current state of the global "human anthill" could be visually characterized by a picture depicting a builder who erects a grandiose structure, removing blocks from its foundation for this. Here we will not analyze the causes of the "dinosaur syndrome" in our anthropo-chauvinistic species, since this has been done by many researchers (our contribution to this movement is the work "The Ethics of Living Matter as the Basis of Human Ethics"), but we will proceed from the fact that the thinking majority imbued with the spirit of the Vancouver Declaration, which proclaimed in 1989 on behalf of the 24 leading experts of the world that "the preservation of life on Earth is one of the main tasks facing mankind" . AT this study we will try to determine, from a pantheistic position, the logic of spatio-temporal megasynthesis not only at the level of human individuals, but also at the level of the most cephalized life forms, to which some species of dolphins must be attributed. The need for such interspecies cooperation is understood as a natural step in the integration of the superconsciousness of the noosphere.

1. Information and intelligence in the modern world

Our modern world, unlike previous historical eras, has time to change significantly during a separate human life. A key role in the transformation of the world belongs to the so-called "information technology". Building a developed information society, in which a web of computer networks will entangle almost all spheres of human life, is a priority task for the EU. In the general case, information is a kind of microstructure associated according to a certain law with the corresponding macro event. Information relieves us of the need for personal presence and observation of all events; having information, we have the opportunity to see them as many times as we like and at a convenient time in our imagination or on a computer screen. The phenomenon of the Internet is easiest for us to explain from evolutionary and biological positions. Modern views on information allow us to conclude that it is the basis of all evolutionary processes known to us at various levels of structural organization: biological, mental, virtual. For the subject of our study, it will be important to consider the role of information exchange in social insects: ants, bees and termites, which established communication links long before the appearance of man. Comparing the role of the nervous system in multicellular organisms in terms of synchronization life cycles individual organs and the language of social insects, we can conclude that they perform identical functions, and therefore consider the latter as some kind of exotic form of a single organism, consisting of relatively separate moving parts. Clearly, language and communication in other species, including humans, serve the same purpose at various levels of their association. Thus, the development of the Internet is the formation of a "nervous system" in the global human anthill. Intellectual and cultural integration, due to the democratic nature of computer technology, is becoming available to an increasing number of people; the individual consciousnesses of the latter, together with the increasingly complex systems of artificial intelligence, tend to form a single biotechnological superconsciousness of the planet. Having understood the logic of the modern phase of megasynthesis, we must ask ourselves the question of the possibility of such integration among other biological species. The tool for such consideration should be the results of an analysis of the evolutionary causes of the emergence and development of human intelligence.
It is important to note that the condition for the spiritual and moral integration of a person with other higher forms of life is the adoption by him of a modern bioethical concept, set forth, for example, in the work .

2. Tursiops Truncatus and Homo sapiens

Over the past decades, no animal has attracted as much attention from scientists, and the public as well, as a dolphin. For a long time it was believed that Telemachus, the son of the legendary Odysseus, was the "first mortal" who made friends with his rescued dolphin. Relatively recently discovered in the caves of South Africa, stylized drawings depicting a man swimming next to a dolphin turned out to be much older. It is interesting to compare these findings with the original and well-reasoned hypothesis about the decisive importance of the "aquatic phase" in the formation of Homo sapiens on the islands near Africa. Then it is quite possible to assume that the friendship of our ancestors with dolphins could be calculated for thousands of years, and maybe even millions of years...
The family of dolphins has about 50 species, among them the bottlenose dolphin or bottlenose dolphin is most famous due to its quick wit, friendly meek disposition, and size that does not frighten a person, unlike, for example, a seven-meter killer whale. Humans and dolphins turned out to have a lot in common: a similar brain structure (see figure), an unexpected appearance in the fossil record, a love of games and imitative behavior, an altruistic love for offspring, etc. Ancient Greek and Roman scientists described cases known to them of cooperative fishing by people and dolphins, rescue by the latter of drowning people (the famous singer Arion was among them), protection from sharks; recent history fully confirmed the accuracy of such information.
The last decades have brought another surprise - the miraculous ability of dolphins to have a beneficial effect on the nervous system of people during sessions of joint swimming was discovered. The nature of the unique healing effect has not yet been revealed, despite the many models put forward from biofield to biosonar (the frequency range of dolphin sonar is from a few Hertz to two hundred MHz at a power of up to 8 watts / cm), which does not prevent its long-term use in various countries of the world: USA, Denmark, Cuba, Japan, etc. Ukraine is also one of the pioneers in this field thanks to the work carried out at the Research Center "State Oceanarium" of the Ministry of Defense and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Sevastopol, established in 1966 at the direction of the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy, Admiral Gorshkov). For several decades, dolphins have been trained by US Navy instructors to search for sunken military installations, naval base protection, and so on. Such work was carried out in the former USSR. In general, it seems that the achievements in this interspecies cooperation are impressive, but what are their prospects in the light of the ideas that excited the world community in their time? Let us briefly dwell on the brightest of these ideas, which were expressed by the head of the General Research of the Cerebral Cortex Department of the National Institute of Mental Health (USA) John Lilly and Igor Charkovsky. In the book "Man and Dolphin" (1962), based on his own research and assessment of the level of structural development of the brain of higher mammals, Dr. Lilly predicted that "in the next 10 to 20 years, humanity will establish contact with representatives of other biological species." He considered Bottlenose Dolphin to be the most suitable partner for a number of reasons. The idea of ​​Igor Charkovsky is purely bio-evolutionary: a technocratic civilization will inevitably lead to an ecological catastrophe on land, and people will be forced to flee in the ocean. Together with the dolphins, they will create a new civilization, the end product of which will be a more perfect creature "homo-dolphinus". It is claimed that Charkovsky's followers are able to sleep on the water and find food in the sea; that they have established special, apparently telepathic contacts with the dolphins. At least in Charkovsky's group there are children safely born in the water under the supervision of dolphins. Well, such a development of events, with the uncontrolled overpopulation of our planet and ignoring environmental issues- quite possible. However, would the ocean then still be suitable for the survival of higher mammals? However, so far no one has been able to establish verbal contact with the dolphin, which greatly increases the already huge number of skeptics of this exciting prospect. And yet there is reason to believe that Lilly's bold predictions partly came true after five years! This was demonstrated by the famous chimpanzee Washoe when, in 1967, she first asked for a "tasty" in the language of the deaf and dumb. North America- "Amslene", i.e. in human language. Note that subsequently a whole colony of chimpanzees was organized, using this language (up to a hundred words) both for intraspecific communication and for communication with humans. The chimpanzee brain is about three times smaller than the human brain and less structurally developed; the bottlenose dolphin's brain is larger in weight than a human's and even structurally superior in some parameters. So why are elementary intelligent contacts established with a chimpanzee, and not with a dolphin? Next, we will try to answer this question.
Homo sapiens and the higher species of dolphins, including Tursiops truncatus (bottle dolphin), are the most cephalized life forms in terrestrial and aquatic environments, respectively, which determines the fundamental feature of their interspecies position. There is still no strictly scientific explanation of the reasons for the evolutionary necessity of such a complex and large brain in higher dolphins, just as there is no clear evidence that they have highly developed speech and higher forms of rational activity. However, the common belief that this remarkable development of the dolphin's brain is mainly due to its orientation-location abilities is refuted by the fact that in bat"an extremely weakly cephalic brain, and in terms of temporal lobes differentiation it ranks among the last among mammals" despite its known echolocation abilities. It seems to us that the emergence of such a perfect brain in dolphins could be due in their evolution to the information function aimed at socialization. The presence of information exchange between dolphins is confirmed by the consistency of their actions, both during group hunting and in extreme situations, as well as by experiments on the exchange of information (via an acoustic channel) between dolphins in isolated pools, conducted by scientists from the American and Soviet naval departments. However, an unambiguous correlation between FM signals and dolphin behavior has not yet been established. Scientists from the National Research Center “State Oceanarium” recently discovered a fine harmonic composition of communication signals and substantiated the position on the informational significance of multiple higher harmonics, which have not been previously studied. The results of their work allow us to conclude that for communication in the near-surface non-stationary marine environment dolphins use test information signals. In this case, using the test signal, it becomes possible to determine the law of distortion of multiple harmonics in each specific traffic and, by applying the inverse transformation to the distorted information signal (which requires a highly developed brain), restore it quite completely. It should be noted that the SRC "GO" also developed the design of a modernized transposing device that converts the harmonic spectrum of dolphin signals into the frequency range perceived by humans. In general, it seems that modern telecommunication technologies make it possible to overcome the technical problem of a significant difference between the natural communication systems of humans and dolphins. However, the problem is not only this. It is very important to understand that the formation of the intellect of an individual human individual in a particular historical phase is organically linked with the corresponding level of culture, determined by the state of scientific and technological progress of the entire human community. For the formation of the intellect of the individual in human society, the institution of the family serves and a multi-stage education system has been created, which actually plays the role of a replicator of the cultural mime pool. Should be paid Special attention that the ability to form a person's intellect is fundamentally dependent on his age. Numerous cases known to us of long-term upbringing of children outside of human society, for example, in a family of wolves, show that they, returning back to people, are practically not amenable to learning. Apparently, their brain neurons lose the ability to make additional connections. Fundamental experiments by Mark Rosenzweig showed that "rats reared in "enriched" laboratory conditions (i.e. in spacious cages where they were kept together with other rats and had a wide variety of items for play), the cerebral cortex was developed better than rats reared in empty and cramped cages. Expanding social and physical experience leads to more development of the nervous system, and thanks to this, rats solve various tasks faster and better, for example, tasks with a maze. " In other words, the intelligence of highly organized animals depends to a large extent on upbringing and learning, i.e. from their information environment. Obviously, the higher the biological organization of the brain, the greater the importance of the environment in its active formation. This means that human intelligence is replicated by a kind of "social operator" due to the age-related plasticity of his brain, since "the human nervous system must develop in the conditions of human life in order to generate human consciousness" ". The age-related plasticity of the mammalian brain is a fundamental fact, the significance of which, it seems, is still To give an example, in a person who has "severe damage to the left side of the brain ... the brain is plastic enough to transfer the control of speech to the intact left hemisphere. In an adult human, this plasticity is not retained." (highlighted by us). In essence, our goal is to come to an understanding that, with respect to the most cephalic species of dolphins, it is correct to set the task not of assessing their level of intelligence, as has been done so far, but about the search for methods of its active age formation, in a certain sense, modeling the replication functions of the social institutions of the human community!
The main expected results in case of successful implementation of the project of such a study could be:
(1) confirmation of a fundamental opportunity intellectual development higher species of dolphins, which corresponds to the “outstanding size of neocortex” of their highly differentiated brain to the informational perception of the achievements of human culture and, based on it -
(2) a new form of interspecies cooperation in the practical and spiritual spheres, corresponding to the evolutionary trend in the formation of planetary superconsciousness.
Naturally, only further research can determine the true physiological capabilities of the dolphin brain and their readiness to perceive the achievements of human intelligence. Of course, a priori, we cannot say anything about the mechanism of thinking of a dolphin, even in humans it is predominantly left-hemispheric (verbal) or right-hemispheric (figurative). In this regard, it would be appropriate to recall Norbert Wiener, who "noted that he happens to think both with words and without words" and Albert Einstein, who noted the following in this regard: "Words, written or spoken, apparently do not play the slightest role in mechanism of my thinking. The mental elements of thinking are certain, more or less clear, signs or images that can be reproduced and combined "at will" .

CONCLUSION

The moral basis of the study proposed here of the possibilities of assimilation by the intellect of the most cephalized species of dolphins of the historical achievements of human culture is a person’s awareness of himself as a creation created by an evolutionary thought process and, therefore, the need for ethical compliance of his activity with the logic of general planetary development, from which it follows that scientific and technical , as well as the spiritual achievements of mankind belong to the general phenomenon of life on Earth. Let us note that the concept, substantiated by us, of the homology of the psychology of the creativity of consciousness and nature allows us to interpret evolution as a reflective thought process. The scientific substantiation of the possibility of such a form of intellectual cooperation is the fundamental property of the "plasticity" of the nervous tissue of mammals, which is the anatomical basis historical development human civilization as well as the highly developed brains of the most cephalic dolphin species. The technical support for the design of a communication channel for the practical implementation of the noted interspecies cooperation is the outstanding achievements of modern telecommunication technologies in coding, transmission and processing of information signals, as well as in the recognition of complex images.
Unfortunately, the plasticity of the nervous tissue of humans and dolphins can be used for inhumane purposes to ensure the selfish corporate interests of influential structures of the human community. Therefore, I would like to draw the attention of the democratic public to this problem, and in particular, altruistic organizations in terms of monitoring compliance with both ethical standards in the field of education and mass communication, and bioethical standards in the field of scientific research.
The obvious fact that human practical activity and the still remaining probability of a nuclear catastrophe have created a real threat to the existence of life in its modern highly developed forms deprives a person of the right to consider himself superior to other harmless living organisms. Most likely, the main reason for the genetically determined aggressiveness of man is that the main driving force in his creation was the Malthusian natural selection"due to overpopulation": numerous human relatives were killed, and in many cases even eaten. At the same time, whales and dolphins are the highest achievement of selection due to "increasing adaptation" to the environment. Anyone who has an elementary aesthetic sense of beauty cannot but admire their perfection in relation to their habitat; this latter makes up 2/3 of the surface of our planet, which therefore should be called the Ocean, where life originated. Indeed, the exceptional morphological feature of cetaceans is the "general reduction of limbic structures", which "perhaps determines the pronounced "meek" character of dolphins" .
Whether an aggressive and self-righteous person is not a mistake in the evolutionary thought process, our coming generations will already know. In general, it seems that the ethical rule of survival modern man is sensory integration with all forms of life through the adoption of the ethics of living matter and, probably, intellectual integration logically complementing it with the rest of the most cephalized creations of the earthly mind.

LITERATURE

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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 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 job shows that for 15 million years, many different varieties of dolphins and whales coexisted happily 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.

I recently posted a post on LiveJournal about dolphins. About their extermination by people
Some comments, from seemingly reasonable people, struck me .. - Well, how do you not understand, - they wrote to me under this post, - After all, dolphins eat almost all the fish and people, Danes and Japanese, have nothing to eat ..
- Well, people kill wolves so that wolves do not eat our sheep, sheep, cows .. Wolves are also smart animals ..
The plan of the World Government immediately popped into my head that no more than 500 million inhabitants should remain on Earth.
And in Russia, 10 million is enough, Margaret Thatcher said publicly.
This information is in the public domain, anyone who is interested can study this plan for the depopulation of people on Earth.
There is nothing, they say, to feed all these billions of people. Work to reduce the population has been going on for a long time.
This is also well known. Alcohol, drugs, GMO products, vaccines, vaccinations, chemicals in dishes, in cosmetics, invented diseases. Well, wars, of course, are also there ..
They kill medicine in Russia, that's why, too. Why do we need healthy people?
During the time of Peter the Great, amaranth was almost destroyed. But before that, Russ baked amaranth bread. They ate amaranth, which can very quickly saturate a person.
There are many vitamins in amaranth.
But people are being forced to eat specially the wrong food. Many plants and vegetables that are useful for humans are banned.
And I will never believe that by killing dolphins, a person ceases to be hungry. A person can eat a lot of things. And a lot of things to get enough of, and besides fish, in the end.
Dolphin killings remind me of Sacrifices. This is the answer of these killings. Since dolphins are intelligent creatures. By the way, sometimes it’s interesting for anyone, dolphins can communicate telepathically. Strong telepaths can understand what they want to convey to a person. Dolphins know each other by name.
Sharks are afraid of dolphins. Why? A flock of dolphins can attack sharks with a powerful psi-blow.
In 1987, a group of scientists arrived at the Batumi Dolphinarium. Among them was Natalya, a telepath. So Natalya was able to establish a telepathic connection with the dolphin Lada.
She was very happy and told about the fact that they have to perform stupid tricks in order not to die of hunger. She also told that the trainer hides fresh fish, and gives them rotten))
Somehow he hit Lada in the muzzle (or face?) When Natalya asked the trainer about all this, he was clearly confused. How did Natalya find out all this?
The trainer could not even imagine that a stupid animal could tell all this ..
Once upon a time, on the island of Crete, there was a cult of the Dolphin. Ancient sculptures of dolphins, images of dolphins are found all over the island. People of the past knew how to get into telepathic communication with dolphins.
In 1949, the American psychoanalyst John Lilly, known for his work in the field of neurophysiology and psychiatry, learned from his fellow zoologists that cetaceans have a brain that surpasses the human brain in absolute weight. This fact shocked Lilly so much that he delved into the study of dolphins for many years. After 12 years, the researcher expressed a striking idea that on our planet, perhaps, there is another truly intelligent humanoid, comparable to a person in terms of his mental development. And in 1967, his sensational book “The Mind of a Dolphin. Intelligence beyond the human. The scientist was not afraid to declare to the whole world that people would have to free themselves from the usual ideas about “reasonable man” as the crown of creation.
Dolphins are the second intelligent Race on Earth.
If the Man can again get in touch with them telepathically, the dolphins will be able to tell us a lot about the mysteries of the oceans..

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 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 strength of the muscles of dolphins, which is 5 times greater than the strength of the muscles of the strong man 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, pollution environment or testing 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 reduced 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 South America and outwardly similar to bottlenose dolphins. Researchers have found specific 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.