What Can Humans Know about Dolphin Minds
On October 14th Lori Marino offered a live webinar as part of the American Cetacean Society San Diego Chapter’s Live Series. In her talk Dr. Marino reviewed some of our current scientific knowledge about cetacean brains and cognition, and identified areas where we are different from cetaceans and areas where we are very similar.
She concluded that as a result of our shared deep evolutionary history as mammals and our shared neuroanatomy, cetaceans and humans are not entirely unfamiliar to each other.
Watch the webinar. (Use the passcode: 79?heKiH)
Orca Culture in “Animal Minds”
Lori Marino’s article “The Culture of Killer Whales” is out in Animal Minds, the ambitious new magazine that’s available on newsstands (and only newsstands) throughout North America.
She writes that orcas (killer whales) are intelligent mammals who possess longstanding, often unique, cultural traditions, including diet preferences, dialects and other behaviors that are passed down through learning from one generation to the next.
The Landscape of Intelligence
In this 2015 paper, Lori Marino explores where dolphin and whale brains fit into the landscape of intelligence on earth.
Download the pdf.
Why We’re Confounded by the Brains of Whales and Dolphins
At the Animals on the Mind conference at the University of Denver, Lori Marino talks about why dolphin and whale brains are a challenge for our primate-centered views of intelligence.
Watch the video.
Who Are Dolphins?
At the conference The Other Minds Problem: Animal Sentience and Cognition, Dr. Lori Marino gives an overview of current knowledge about cetacean brains, self-awareness, and what these capacities mean for the adaptation of these animals to their natural life in the oceans.
Watch the video.
Cetaceans Have Complex Brains for Complex Cognition
A review article on how the large complex brain of dolphins and whales forms the basis for their intelligence and complex capacities.
Download the pdf.
The Cetacean Brain – Evolution, Structure, and Function
A review of the evolution of cetacean brains and the structure and function of modern cetacean brains from the latest scientific studies.
Download the pdf.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Dolphin Brains Reveals Auditory Pathway to Temporal Lobe
New findings that dolphins possess an extra sound processing system in the brain. It starts at the inner ear and goes to the temporal lobe, where humans process language.
Download the pdf.
View the blog post.
Neuroanatomy of the Killer Whale – from MRI
First comprehensive analysis of the killer whale (orca) brain using magnetic resonance imaging.
Download the pdf.
White Whale Brain Anatomy from MRI
First comprehensive analysis of the beluga whale brain using magnetic resonance imaging.
Download the pdf.