Facts about Dolphin
The only exception to this is the Boto river dolphin, which does have some small hairs on the rostrum.
The dolphin brain is large and has a highly structured cortex, which often is referred to in discussions about their advanced intelligence.
The family Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacea, and is considered to be relatively recent, with dolphins appearing about ten million years ago, during the Miocene.
Accidental by-catch in trout nets is common and poses a risk for mainly local dolphin populations.
There also are many coins from ancient Greece that feature a man or boy riding on the back of a dolphin.
The older a male dolphin is, the more likely his body is covered with scars ranging in depth from teeth marks made by other dolphins.
Dolphins are often regarded as one of Earth's most intelligent animals.
Orcas (killer whales) and some closely related species belong to the Delphinidae family and therefore qualify as dolphins, even though they are called whales in common language.
Other movies, such as 1977 horror movie Orca and the 1973 The Day of the Dolphin, painted a less friendly picture of these species.
The small hairs on the rostrum of the Boto river dolphin are believed to function as a tactile sense, however, possibly to compensate for the Boto's poor eyesight (Stepanek 1998).
Most dolphins have acute eyesight, both in and out of the water.
Like other members of the Odontoceti suborder, dolphins have only one blowhole and have the main bones of the upper jaw thrust upward and back over the eye sockets (Grzimek 2004).
A number of militaries have employed dolphins for various purposes from finding mines to rescuing lost or trapped humans.
Dolphins often leap above the water surface, sometimes performing acrobatic figures (e.g.
A modern human–dolphin fishery, where dolphins literally herd shoals of fish into the nets of fishermen, still takes place in Laguna, Santa Catarina, Brazil, as well as in parts of West Africa (Telegraph 2006).
Play is a very important part of dolphins' lives, and they can often be observed playing with seaweed or play-fighting with other dolphins.
A second Flipper movie was made in 1996, and a bottlenose dolphin also played a prominent role in the 1990s science fiction television series seaQuest DSV.
Dolphins also seem to enjoy riding waves and frequently “surf” coastal swells and the bow waves of boats.
Dolphin is used casually as a synonym for bottlenose dolphin, the most common and familiar species of dolphin.
Dolphins also seem to have been important to the Minoans, judging by artistic evidence from the ruined palace at Knossos.
Dolphins are social, living in pods ("schools") of up to a dozen individuals.
Dolphin has been used either for members of the family Delphinidae or for any member of the families Delphinidae and Platanistoidea.
Dolphins are one of the few animals other than humans known to mate for reasons other than reproduction.
Dolphins have a streamlined fusiform body, adapted for fast swimming.
Dolphin behavior has been studied extensively by humans, however, both in captivity and in the wild.
Most species are marine, but the Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), Chinese river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer), Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica), and Indus river dolphin (Platanista minor) inhabit exclusively freshwater environments.
Dolphins vary in size from 1.2 meters (4 feet) and 40 kilograms (88 pounds) for Maui's dolphin up to 9.5 meters (30 feet) and ten metric tons for the orca.
The dolphins break sponges off and cover their snouts with them, thus protecting their snouts while foraging.
Various fishing methods, most notably purse seine fishing for tuna and the use of drift and gill nets, results in a large amounts of dolphins being killed inadvertently (Clover 2004).
Six species in the family Delphinidae are commonly called whales but strictly speaking are dolphins.
In 1933, three abnormal dolphins were beached off the Irish coast; these appeared to be hybrids between Risso's dolphin and the bottlenose dolphin (Dolphin Safari 2006).
Acts of aggression can become so intense that targeted dolphins are known to go into exile, leaving their communities as a result of losing a fight with other dolphins.
In captivity, a bottlenose dolphin and a rough-toothed dolphin produced hybrid offspring (NSRL 1997).
The best known hybrid, however, is the Wolphin, a false killer whale–bottlenose dolphin hybrid.
Various other dolphin hybrids have also been reported in the wild, such as a bottlenose–Atlantic spotted hybrid (Herzing 2003).
Dolphins are willing to occasionally approach humans and playfully interact with them in the water.
Hearing is also used for echolocation, which seems to be an ability all dolphins have.
The series portrayed a bottlenose dolphin, Flipper, in a friendly relationship with two boys.
The renewed popularity of dolphins in the 1960s resulted in the appearance of many dolphinariums around the world, which have made dolphins accessible to the public.
Dolphins are largely marine cetaceans (order Cetacea) with many teeth that belong to the "toothed whales" suborder Odontoceti, along with whales and porpoises, and they usually have a beaklike snout.
Dolphins are also common in contemporary literature, especially science fiction novels.
Modern dolphin skeletons have two small, rod-shaped pelvic bones thought to be vestigial hind legs.
A group of dolphins is called a "school" or a "pod". Male dolphins are called "bulls", females "cows" and young dolphins are called "calves".
All dolphins have teeth but they don't chew their food, they just bite and swallow! Some orcas (killer whales), eat only fish – a favourite being salmon – and others eat much bigger prey including seabirds and mammals such as sea lions.
Dolphins are mammals and breathe air into their lungs, just like we do. Dolphins cannot breathe under water like fish can as they do not have gills. Dolphins breathe through a nostril, called a blowhole, located right on top of their heads.
Dolphins are mammals because they breathe air just like us. They are warm blooded mammals just like humans. Dolphins flap their tail up and down to swim. The fish they eat are a good size for a dolphin.Mar 2, 2015
Dolphin skin is smooth and feels rubbery to the touch. Their skin is smooth because they need to pass cleanly through the water without any drag. Dolphin skin is very sensitive, which means it has a lot of nerve endings in it. Humans have a lot of nerve endings too, especially on our face and hands.