Dolphins may have a spoken language, new research suggests.
Well duh, silly humans.
A conversation between dolphins may have been recorded by scientists for the first time, a Russian researcher claims.
Two adult Black Sea bottlenose dolphins, named Yasha and Yana, didn't interrupt each other during an interaction taped by scientists and may have formed words and sentences with a series of pulses, Vyacheslav Ryabov says in a new paper.
"The (pulse) exchanges reminds us of an exchange with sentences between two people," Ryabov told CNN.
Joshua Smith, a research fellow at Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit, says there will need to be more research before scientists can be sure whether dolphins are chatting.
There are two different types of noises dolphins use for communication, whistles and clicks, also known as pulses.
Using new recording techniques, Ryabov separated the individual "non coherent pulses" the two dolphins made and theorized each pulse was a word in the dolphins' language, while a collection of pulses is a sentence.
"Dolphins are producing these packs of pulses without interrupting each other which let's us suggest that each of the dolphins listen to one another before it starts its own pack of pulses," he told CNN.
"Humans must take the first step to establish relationships with the first intelligent inhabitants of the planet Earth by creating devices capable of overcoming the barriers that stand in the way of ... communications between dolphins and people," he said.
