"This is the very best research that shows how the sounds are made mechanically," she says, "and to prove that these sounds are generated by air. "This work took all the fragments of the puzzle, figured out exactly how they fit together, and filled in the gaps, finally making the picture of dolphin sound production clear," she says.Īgnese Lanzetti, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Birmingham who was not part of the research, agrees. "The strength of this work," says Kelly Benoit-Bird, Science Chair at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, "is that it reconciles field observations of sounds and laboratory studies of physiology with our understanding of the evolution of marine mammals to provide a clear, complete picture of how dolphins produce the wide repertoire of sounds that is critical for their survival."īenoit-Bird, who wasn't involved in the study, points to the way the researchers tackled this scientific challenge from a variety of angles. For instance, through audio recording the sounds of wild animals during their dives (by attaching acoustic tags to individual animals) as well as those of trained porpoises and dolphins, the research team determined that it's the vocal fry register that's responsible for echolocation in toothed whales. On top of that, the different registers have different functions. In other languages like Danish, Elemans says it alters the meaning of words.Īnimals Orcas take down a blue whale, proving they're the apex predators of the oceanĪdditional experiments involving vocalization analysis and a kind of CT scan suggested that toothed whales likely have separate vocal registers that generate their numerous sounds, just like we do. Certain people are known for it, like Kim Kardashian or Leonard Cohen. In English, it's usually regarded as an affect - something that changes the emotion or attitude of what's said. We also have a lower register, below the frequency range where we usually talk.
It's the situation where we most often hear our higher-pitched vocal register on display - falsetto. Recorded in Ontario, Canada, on August 25, 2002. Males produce this sound by rubbing their wings together. Then, Elemans notices some music playing. The speed and pitch of the chirping sound varies depending on how hot or cold the cricket is. "They're mostly using what's called the chest register." That's our typical speaking voice. "What I hear is a lot of people talking," he notes. He says the airport is as good a place as any to listen to the different ways people vocalize. "They normally never say anything at this airport!" observed Elemans, a bioacoustician at the University of Southern Denmark. Numerous safety and passenger announcements cascaded out of the intercom.
A new study finds that toothed whales can make a range of vocalizations, including some akin to human 'vocal fry,' thanks to a special nasal structure.Ĭoen Elemans was waiting for his flight to take off at the Copenhagen Airport.
0 kommentar(er)
