{"id":146276,"date":"2024-10-02T16:36:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T16:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/02\/dolphins-open-mouth-behaviors-during-play-are-like-smiles-a-study-claims\/"},"modified":"2024-10-02T16:36:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T16:36:06","slug":"dolphins-open-mouth-behaviors-during-play-are-like-smiles-a-study-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/02\/dolphins-open-mouth-behaviors-during-play-are-like-smiles-a-study-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins\u2019 open-mouth behaviors during play are like smiles, a study claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/100124_gt_dolphin-smile_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Dolphins\u2019 open-mouth behaviors during play are like smiles, a study claims\" title=\"Dolphins\u2019 open-mouth behaviors during play are like smiles, a study claims\" \/><\/div> \r\n<br><br><div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n<p>Dolphins are known for what appear to be big, contagious smiles. But do they actually, well, smile?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The answer, according to a new study of dolphin play, is a resounding \u201cmaybe.\u201d Dolphins use their smile-like facial expression <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/iscience\/fulltext\/S2589-0042(24)02191-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">when interacting with their mates during playful times<\/a>, researchers report October 2 in <em>iScience<\/em>. That, the team says, suggests the cetaceans are doing something akin to a human laugh. But other experts urge caution in attributing humanlike behavior to creatures whose intent we can only guess at.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.email-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  color: white;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-image: url(\"\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.jpg\");\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"rich-text embedded-conversion-content is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n#dynamic-wrapper {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  background-image: url(\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/032624_sb_space-sugar_feat.jpg?w&#61;800&amp;ssl&#61;1\");\n  background-size: cover;\n  background-position: center center;\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion {\n  padding: 20px;\n  background:rgba(0,0,0, 0.5);\n  color: white;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion h2 {\n  color: white;\n}\n\np.has-text-align-center a {\n  color: white !important;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  font-weight: bold;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"dynamic-wrapper\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div id=\"dynamic-conversion\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Tell us about your Science News experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Help us improve by taking our 15-question reader survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/aside>\n\n\n<p>Scientists have long known anecdotally that dolphins can display a behavior called \u201copen mouth,\u201d which people often associate with a smile. Other animals, like primates, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/human-laugh-lines-traced-back-ape-ancestors\">can make a similar relaxed open mouth<\/a> to communicate during playful contexts (<em>SN: 6\/10\/15<\/em>). \u201cIt\u2019s a signal that communicates, \u2018Look, I\u2019m just playing!\u2019,\u201d says Elisabetta Palagi, a comparative ethologist at the University of Pisa in Italy. \u201cLike when we put a smiley face on a cell phone message that could be misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, such behavior has never been studied in-depth in dolphins. So Palagi and colleagues recorded nearly 900 play sessions among 22 captive bottlenosed dolphins (<em>Tursiops truncatus<\/em>), filming nearly 1,300 \u201csmiles\u201d from 17 animals. The researchers filmed dolphins playing alone, with other dolphins and with humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The dolphins mainly showed their open-mouth behavior while playing with a companion, usually another dolphin, the team found. When the animals were playing alone, they practically never did. Furthermore, about 90 percent of open-mouth expressions were performed when the dolphins were in their playmate\u2019s field of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, when one of these \u201csmiles\u201d was seen by another dolphin, in about a third of cases, the receiver also \u201csmiled\u201d back in less than a second. That, Palagi says, is the same time that elapses between a human perceiving a facial expression and then mirroring it. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The results suggest that the dolphin\u2019s open-mouth expression is \u201ca very sophisticated form of communication,\u201d Palagi says, which might be used together with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/ai-eavesdrops-dolphins-and-discovers-six-unknown-click-types'\">acoustic signals<\/a> (<em>SN: 12\/7\/17<\/em>). While it\u2019s hard to say whether it had the same evolutionary origin as humans\u2019 smile, it probably has \u201cthe same function,\u201d since the context and the way in which it occurs is the same as in humans, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBeing able to see some evidence that\u2019s demonstrating [dolphin\u2019s open-mouth behavior] in a play context is really great,\u201d says animal behavioralist Erin Frick, who was not involved with the study. But, she adds, dolphins use mouth opening in other contexts as well, such as displaying a threat in an aggressive context. \u201cI don\u2019t think open mouths are always communicating play. I think they do have a role in play,\u201d says Frick, of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Palagi is convinced the open mouth is dedicated only to playful contexts: When the dolphins in her study were acting aggressively, her team didn\u2019t see the animals performing this particular open-mouth behavior. \u201cDuring the few aggressions we witnessed, we saw the opening of the mouth, but after this extremely rapid opening, either a bite or an attempted bite followed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regardless, Frick is not ready to call the behavior a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s not the same,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it still has a very \u2026 functional form in how they communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like Frick, comparative psychologist Heather Hill also urges caution in interpreting the apparent smiles. \u201cI am not super comfortable calling it a \u2018smile,\u2019 given that delphinids and whales use the open mouth display in a variety of social contexts,\u201d says Hill, of St. Mary\u2019s University in San Antonio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Palagi is cognizant of the hesitancy. \u201cThere is a strong debate if in nonhuman animals, the act of smiling or laughing \u2026 is driven by emotional arousal or intention,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were extremely conservative and simply referred to facial display\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Palagi adds, \u201cIt is not easy to say if [the open mouth] in dolphins conveys an emotional mood or is used to simply communicate to others, \u2018Hey, don\u2019t be scared, I am just playing!\u2019, or both.\u201d One thing the team wants to investigate is whether the presence of open-mouth behavior alters play sessions in any way. Perhaps \u201claughing together\u201d \u2014 if that is indeed what it is \u2014 makes the dolphins play together longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/dolphins-smiling-during-play\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dolphins are known for what appear to be big, contagious smiles. But do they actually, well, smile? The answer, according to a new study of dolphin play, is a resounding \u201cmaybe.\u201d Dolphins use their smile-like facial expression when interacting with their mates during playful times, researchers report October 2 in iScience. That, the team says, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/100124_gt_dolphin-smile_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[1068,4811,6872,116151,1557,41275,250],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146278,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146276\/revisions\/146278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}