Dolphins Recorded Having a ‘Conversation?’ Not So Fast.

A researcher in Russia claims to have evidence that dolphins can use words and sentences, but marine mammal experts remain unconvinced.

Dozens of dolphin communication patterns, including the animals’ familiar whistles, clicks, and body postures, have been fascinating scientists for years. But one big question has remained frustratingly elusive: Do these highly intelligent mammals possess their own spoken language?

This week, headlines have been swirling about a paper published in the St. Petersburg Polytechnical University Journal: Physics and Mathematics that seemed to offer tantalizing signs of dolphinese. Two Black Sea bottlenose dolphins were recorded exchanging a series of sounds that resembled “a conversation between two people.” The dolphins took turns producing the sounds and did not interrupt each other, according to study author Vyacheslav Ryabov, a senior researcher at the T. I. Vyazemsky Karadag Scientific Station in Russia.

Ryabov suggests that the

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