Oh hey, Flipper: How dolphins may give each other names

It begins with a whistle

Dolphins
(Image credit: Martin Rügner/Westend61/Corbis)

Fiercely intelligent and remarkably social, bottlenose dolphins may assign one another unique "signature whistles" that act as names, according to a new study.

Since the 1960s, animal researchers have theorized that dolphins may use these whistles to identify one another while grouped together in complex pods, building on the fact that captive dolphins respond to the whistles of other dolphins pals they already know.

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Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.