Bottlenosed dolphins mammal.dominate many marine acts because
of their intelligence and researchers believe much of the dolphin's brain
is used for communication or "echolocation".
While it is not known if dolphins have a formal language, they do communicate
with a signature whistle to identify themselves.
Unlike humans, dolphins lack vocal cords, but they do use a complicated system of whistles, squeaks, moans, trills and clicks produced by sphincter muscles within the blow hole.
Using echolocation, or sonar, dolphins send out frequencies by clicking. The clicking sounds bounce off objects and the returning sound waves are picked up by the dolphin's bulbous forehead and lower jaw and interpreted as to distance, size and shape of object.
This sound system is particularly useful at night or in murky waters such as the Delaware Bay as it allows the dolphin to navigate even if visibility is poor.
Dolphins have produced sound frequencies from 0.25 to 200 kHz, using the higher frequencies for echolocation and the lower frequencies for communication and orientation.
History Exploring Dolphin Communication: Many
of our popular beliefs about dolphins come from the work and writings of
John Lilly. Originally a neurophysiologist with an interest in the dolphin
brain, Lilly began to understand that dolphins were too intelligent to
experiment on, and forged his own path to interspecies communication. Although
his later work remains controversial, many of his original ideas remain
intriguing. Lilly pursued a controversial career, trying to teach dolphins
English and matching vocal output by the dolphins to humans. Although able
to mimic the prosodic aspects of human speech such as rhythm and intensity,
the dolphins were unable to produce consonants involved in the production
of English sounds, most likely due to the lack of necessary anatomy.