We have previously reported that an early-blind echolocating individual (EB) showed robust occipital activation when he identified distant, silent objects based on echoes from his tongue clicks (Thaler, Arnott, & Goodale, 2011). In the present study we investigated the extent to which echolocation activation in EB's occipital cortex reflected general echolocation processing per se versus featur...

A single radial immunodiffusion (SRID) assay and a chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) were initially developed for alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) of the striped dolphin. Utilizing these developed assays, we investigated pregnancy-associated changes in the levels of AFP in the sera of fetuses and pregnant females of three dolphin species; samples were either collected from captive individuals or obtai...

The visual system of the dolphin, particularly the bottle-nosed dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, has been observed extensively in the field from a behavioral aspect. However, from a physiological perspective, Pryor quoted one researcher as follows. “Compared to our knowledge of vision in terrestrial animals, our fundamental knowledge of the cetacean’s highly evolved and very different eye is ‘pathe...

Abstract: This paper focuses on a dolphin-like swimming hydrodynamics problem for a biomimetic amphibious robot capable of both fishand dolphin-like swimming modes. A Lagrangian reduction has been established in terms of rigid-body dynamics. For robust gait control, a central pattern generator-based approach is incorporated into the model serving as explicit joint angle control. Consequently, a...

The authors would like to acknowledge the logistic support of the staff and trainers at Dolphins Plus, Dolphin Cove, and Island Dolphin Care. We thank them for their time and dedication to dolphin research, and for their invaluable help in rating the dolphins in this study. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Stan A. Kuczaj, Department of Psychology, University of Sout...

Bats (Order Chiroptera), the only mammals capable of powered flight and sophisticated laryngeal echolocation, represent one of the most species-rich and ubiquitous orders of mammals. However, phylogenetic relationships within this group are poorly resolved. A robust evolutionary tree of Chiroptera is essential for evaluating the phylogeny of echolocation within Chiroptera, as well as for unders...

The ability of blind humans to navigate complex environments through echolocation has received rapidly increasing scientific interest. However, technical limitations have precluded a formal quantification of the interplay between echolocation and self-motion. Here, we use a novel virtual echo-acoustic space technique to formally quantify the influence of self-motion on echo-acoustic orientation...

Odontocete cetaceans have evolved a highly advanced system of active biosonar. It has been hypothesized that other groups of marine animals, such as the pinnipeds, possess analogous sound production, reception, and processing mechanisms that allow for underwater orientation using active echolocation. Despite sporadic investigation over the past 30 years, the accumulated evidence in favor of the...

Chronic inflammation has been associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in humans. Postmortem hepatic and splenic tissue from a 46-year-old geriatric male bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with insulin resistance (chronic hyperinsulinemia with hyperglycemia), chronic inflammation (white blood cell count greater than 12,000 cells/μL), and mild fatty liver disease was eva...

‘dolphin-friendly’ tuna knows that dolphins can be unintended victims of the tuna-fishing industry. Now, a mathematical model shows that dolphin calves can gain up to 90% of the energy required for swimming if they position themselves correctly relative to their mothers, but that the calves are in danger of being lost if this positioning breaks down [1]. As observations of dolphins in the wild ...