There's one thing preventing dolphins from world domination
Digital Reporter
Thursday, October 19, 2017, 5:09 PM - As it stands, humans dominate the planet. Thanks to our developed brains, adaptability and complex social structures among other things, we exist relatively unchallenged in nature.
But a new study out of the University of Manchester and the University of British Columbia suggests there's only one thing from stopping dolphins competing against humans for the top spot.
Hands.
According to evolutionary biologist Susanne Shultz, dolphins share almost every other trait necessary to rule the planet with humans -- we're safe for now, because dolphins don't have hands. Shultz says the mammals can't create their own cities or technologies because they didn't evolve opposable thumbs.
Still, dolphins share a long list of traits with humans that indicate intelligence, including:
- Forming complex relationships and working together to solve a problem
- Teaching how to hunt and using tools
- Vocalizations that include regional dialects
- Recognizing one another by a 'name'
- Caring for young that aren't their own
“That means the apparent co-evolution of brains, social structure, and behavioural richness of marine mammals provides a unique and striking parallel to the large brains and hyper-sociality of humans and other primates on land," Shultz says in a statement.
Researchers used data to test the dolphins' abilities, in what is being called the largest-scale study of its kind on intelligent marine mammals.
“This research isn’t just about looking at the intelligence of ... dolphins, it also has important anthropological ramifications as well," Dr Michael Muthukrishna, Assistant Professor of Economic Psychology at LSE, says.
"In order to move toward a more general theory of human behaviour, we need to understand what makes humans so different from other animals. And to do this, we need a control group," he adds, noting that dolphins and whales are more 'alien' to human development that our close primate cousins.
The complete paper can be found in Nature.
Source: Nature
