Published By: Rinks

Dolphins: They Are Smarter Than We Imagine?

Competitors in the realm of cognition include those who are linguistically and culturally similar to us and who have a similar level of self-awareness and brain size. Are dolphins really as smart as humans?

The extent to which different animals exhibit intelligent behavior is a hot debate topic. Tresearchers discuss on which dog breeds are the most intelligent, the extent to which chimps can mimic human behavior or the complexity of challenges that an octopus can tackle. Yet, dolphins keep popping up as some of the planet's most talented animals. Some even claim that, after humans, marine mammals are the planet's second-smartest species. Yet, it's worth noting that Douglas Adams placed whales and dolphins in third place.  Not all dolphin jokes are funny; there are many genuine reasons to respect these marine mammals.

Ratios in the Brain

Why do some people think they're the second smartest species after humans? In a nutshell, it comes down to differences in brain size. Sperm whales are large creatures that need a lot of processing power just to go about. Research conducted by Marino and her colleagues in 2002 looked at the encephalization quotient, or the ratio of a dolphin's brain mass to its total body mass. They compared dolphins' encephalization ratios to those of apes, humans, gorillas, and orangutans, all of whom are known for their high levels of intelligence. Humans ranked first, followed by dolphins of the Tuxuxi, white-sided, common, & bottlenose varieties. The study found that the dolphins' encephalization quotient was not too dissimilar from that of Homo habitus, a near-human predecessor. It towered over sperm whales in size. In his opinion, "their minds are big," Marino says of them. She adds, however, that scientists are moving away from the practice of assigning relative value to animal brain size. While the encephalization quotient of cephalopods like the octopus may not be as high as that of other animals, this has not stopped the cephalopods from doing well on many problem-solving tasks.

But, the size of a creature's brain isn't always indicative of its intellect, and Thewissen suggests that the development of echolocation by the progenitors of delphinids as well as other cetaceans may have contributed to this increase.

Insight into Our Own Minds as Reflected in a Mirror

To truly get into the minds of dolphins, we must first go inside our own. We've known they're smart for thousands of years, adds Marino, and reports of their inquisitive nature date back to at least classical Greece. In the 1950s and 1960s, John Lilly, a scientist who investigated bottlenose dolphin vocalization, made the first significant scientific attempts to quantify dolphin intelligence. Lilly's pioneering research paved the way for further investigations into dolphin cognition. Yet, Marino claims that a lack of funding for significant research on dolphin intelligence caused a research drought that lasted for years.