IUBio

Dolphin brain

Craig s303722 at student.uq.edu.au
Tue Jan 26 08:43:56 EST 1999


TonyJeffs2 wrote:
> 
> Dolphins have biger brains than people. I always thought maybe it is a bigger
> cerebellum or something to do with movement,  but I recently heared that they
> have a bigger cerebral cortex, so now I'm intrigued.  Do they have a larger
> cortical surface area, I wonder.    Anyone know where I can find out something
> about the dolphin brain?
> 
> Thanks
> Tony

Sorry, brains aren't my specialty, so I can't answer your question. But
just as an interesting point, I seem to recall reading once that
dolphins sleep half their brain at a time, so that they can keep
swimming and breathing using the remaining, awake half. They then
periodically switch halves, so that the whole brain is rested. Can
anyone else confirm this? Perhaps a large brain is required so that
certain functions can be duplicated.

Craig.



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