Aristotle once wrote, The voice of the dolphin in the air is like that of the human in that they can pronounce vowels and combinations of vowels, but have difficulties with the constants. The dolphin is one amazing creature. Dolphins, whales and porpoises are all related. I am going to talk about all aspects off the dolphin from evolution and vocalization to behavior and intelligence.Dolphin fossils have been found dating back to 45-50 million years ago, which was during the early Eocene epoch era. The early dolphin or Protosetidae, back then did not resemble todays dolphin. It is suggested that a primitive mammal called Mesonychidae roamed the planes of Africa. This mammal started to become more dependent on the ocean and swamps abundance of food. Researchers believe the dolphin went through an amphibious stage, similar to the seals. They would feed in the ocean and come upon land to breed. Roughly 30 million years ago the early dolphin split into two main species, the toothed whale and the baleen whale. The group called Delphinidae is where the modern day dolphin arose. These fossils date back to 25 million years ago. Modern day dolphins live in rivers and oceans throughout the world. There are 33 known species of ocean dolphins and five river dolphins. The bottle-nosed dolphin inhibits mainly temperate and tropical waters, in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian ocean and Mediterranean Sea. They normally stay close to shore in warmer water, but some stay offshore in the cooler waters. Dolphins migrate due to the movement of food supply and the change in water temperature. The size of a dolphin varies from 3.9 feet to 32 feet long and 110 pounds to 18,000 pounds. The tucuxi dolphin is the smallest known dolphin. This dolphin frequents and has been spotted 1250 miles up the Amazon River. Bottle-nosed dolphins average 8 feet and 500 pounds. The color of the dolphin ranges from black, white, gray, tan to even pink. S...
