Whales and Dolphins

Paper Summary:

This paper examines recent scientific discoveries about the origins of dolphins and whales. The paper begins by giving a brief description of these animals, followed by an analysis of their behavior. Special attention is given to their interaction in social groups. Finding from field studies about whales are presented according to various species of whales. A brief description of the origins of dolphins is also given. The paper concludes with a thorough discussion of prehistoric whales based on fossil findings, with an emphasis on whale evolution through the various epochs.

From the Paper:

"But, how did Whales and Dolphins evolve? In Nicholas Humphrey's essay "The social function of intellect," (Humphrey, 1976) said: "The open sea is an environment where technical knowledge can bring little benefit and thus complex societies - and high intelligence - are contraindicated (dolphins and whales provide, maybe, a remarkable and unexplained exception)" in 1976 and this began the Machiavellian intelligence" hypothesis," which says that more intelligent animals evolved into social or grouping and cooperating animals. This is now widely accepted, though it has received little attention in the controversies that may concern the evolution of whales except from a few cetologists."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Chadwick, Douglas, Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, 2nd ed. Checkmark Books, 1999 National Geographic.
• Chadwick, Douglas, "Evolution of Whales." National Geographic, November 1, 2001
• Green, John. Whales and Dolphins Coloring Book. Courier Dover Publications, 1990
• Hasegawa, M., Adachi, J. & M. C. Milinkovitch. "Novel Phylogeny of Whales Supported by Total Molecular Evidence." Journal of Molecular Evolution, 44 (Suppl 1): S117-S120 (1997).
• Humphrey, Nicholas. "The Social Function of Intellect," in Bateson, P. P. G. and Hinde, R.A., Eds. Growing Points in Ethology, (1976) chapter 9, pages 303-317. Cambridge University Press.

More papers on Whales and Dolphins:

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• Persuasive Essay # 30114 : "Do Animals Have Language?"
• Essay # 58101 : "Abuse of Dolphins"

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