A Dolphin By Any Other Name

SloppyElvis writes "CNN is reporting that scientists have proven that Dolphins can communicate with each other by name. From the article: 'researchers synthesized signature whistles with the caller's voice features removed and played them to dolphins through an underwater speaker' to which the mammals responded. This form of identification in language was previously only known to exist in the human world." Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs.

yeah but the downside is

[Anonymous Coward]

they all call each other Flipper!

-Sj53

Flipper

[digitaldc]

He tells me he never did like that name, but then he thanked me for all the fish and quickly left.

My aquatic friend

[Anonymous Coward]

Squeek-Whistle, disagrees.

Capitalization?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since it says "Dolphins" and not "dolphins" (or "porpoises", even) can we assume that this is in reference to the Miami Dolphins? Truly astounding if true...

The true dolphin story

[Ricken]

Baby Dolphin goes downstairs and sits on her little seashell at the table. She looks into her little bowl. It is empty.
"Who's been eating my sardines?!!" she squeaks.
Daddy Dolphin arrives at the table and sits on his big seashell. He looks into his big bowl and it is also empty.
"Who's been eating my sardines?!!" he roars.
Mummy Dolphin puts her head through the serving hatch from the kitchen and yells

"How many times do we have to go through this with you idiots? It was Mummy Dolphin who got up first, it was Mummy Dolphin who woke everyone in the house, it was Mummy Dolphin who made the coffee, it was Mummy Dolphin who unloaded the dishwasher from last night, and put everything away, it was Mummy Dolphin who went out in the cold early morning water to fetch the newspaper, it was Mummy Dolphin who set the damn table, it was Mummy Dolphin who put the friggin catfish out, cleaned the litter box and filled the catfish's water and food dish, and now that you've decided to drag your sorry dolphin-asses downstairs and grace Mummy Dolphin's kitchen with your grumpy presence, listen good, cause I'm only going to say this one more time...
I HAVEN'T MADE THE DAMN SARDINES YET !!"

That's not a name

[DuSTman31]

Personally, I find it far more likely that the dolphins are referring to each other by their slashdot IDs.

2 Things You Don't Know About Dolphins

[ellem]

1) They'd kill us all if they had thumbs
2) They love NASCAR

Re:That's not a name

[hamburger lady]

it's an all-porpoise identifier.

for the record

[Malakusen]

Squeak squeak click squeak click click squeak ee-oo ee-oo click

Translation: I for one welcome our dolphin overlords.

Football players have names?

[NotQuiteReal]

I just thought they were numbered and/or called out by position.

Who knew?

Re:Capitalization?

[TopShelf]

It is amazing, considering how they've had the names right above the numbers on the jerseys for decades.

Or maybe it's just a reference to Ricky Williams finally clearing through his smoky haze and recognizing teammates.

Not that astounding....

[raehl]

Apparently, the Dolphins only managed to respond to their name 9 out of 14 times.

Re:That's not a name

[955301]

Seems to work for them swimmingly.

I wonder what else they're saying...

[eander315]

"Look, those stupid pink animals with the low voices are finally learning how to talk!"

A Dolphin By Any Other Name...

[DamienNightbane]

Would be called "Gamecube"

Gary Larson would be proud...

[fahrbot-bot]

The birds not only recognize their own names, but they appropriatly name the dogs when they encounter them. In addition, they can tell them to sit by name and even will give the dogs bits of food in exchange for treats ...

In other words, your dogs have accepted their African Grey Parrot overlords.

Gary Larson would proud of them all.

Re:My aquatic friend

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I know what you mean...
My cow-orkers all say "Hey! AC...let's take a break" or "AC, please come over here and help debug this code"
But, when I leave the toilet seat up, I get the full "Anonymous Robert Coward...you come here RIGHT NOW"

Obligitory Jack Handy

[Pudusplat]

If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you
think liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be
wrong, though. It's Hambone.

-Jack Handy

Obligatory Monty Python reference

[brian0918]

"they all call each other Flipper!"

"G'day, Flipper... Hello Flipper... how are you, Flipper? Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce a chap from pommie land... Michael Baldwin - this is Flipper. Michael Baldwin - this is Flipper... and Michael Baldwin - this is Flipper."

"Is your name not Flipper, then?"

"No, it's Michael."

"That's going to cause a little confusion. Mind if we call you 'Flipper' to keep it clear?"

psychokenetics

[Splork]

who needs thumbs when you can bend spoons with your mind?

there is no human.

Re:*sigh*

[rk]

A statistician could never really agree 100%. :-)

Re:2 Things You Don't Know About Dolphins

[XnavxeMiyyep]

4)????
5)Profit!

Re:Ever heard of parrots ?

[Jeremi]

Do these parrots have personal names and speak them IN THE WILD?

I'd certainly like to know the answer to that question... we have flocks of wild parrots living around here (Southern California) and they are very noisy: it's hard to miss them when they fly by, it sounds like several dozen 300 baud modems all transmitting at once. Which makes me wonder if the modem-like audio might not actually contain a fair amount of encoded data in it...

Re:Ever heard of parrots ?

[Joe the Lesser]

Beautiful plumage

Just don't free the Dolphin Queen

[Datcha42]

"Hmm, Bottlenose bruises. Blowhole burns. Flipper prints. This looks like the work of rowdy teens."

Re:Suspected Whales did this Too

[Jeremi]

the whale expert explained how whales make a unique sound before and after their other phrases

Those aren't names, they are packet headers.