Better sonar through dolphin teeth
Dental arrays may be optimized for sound in shallow waters.
A model of how dolphins may use their teeth to receive sound could provide clues for improving man-made sonar systems, according to a study published in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics1.
Read the story here.
Comments
Whoa! Awesome!!
Wether it's true or not, just thinking 'bout that is exciting.
I mean when it comes to nature and dolphins everything is possible. Damn I'm engineer and not biologist.
Nice story. I will be waiting to read when this sonar-teeth thing be proven.
Grettings
Posted by: Pablo Lazo | March 20, 2007 06:31 AM
A very useful work !
One can still argue whether toothless dolphins can echolocate because their jaws are still there (along with some tooth stems), but Peter Dobbins is adding quantitative arguments to the debate and keeping an open mind.
This work will be very useful in designing the new generation of sonar systems.
Posted by: Philippe BLONDEL | March 20, 2007 10:26 AM
Readers can discuss the paper with me personally at the Fourth International Conference on Bio-Acoustics, 10-12th April 2007, Loughborough University, UK - http://bioacoustics2007.lboro.ac.uk/
Posted by: Peter Dobbins | March 20, 2007 11:03 AM
I thoroughly enjoyed the article on Peter Dobbins' dental echolocation research. Like the others who posted comments, I am also very enthusiastic about this kind of potentially ground-breaking research and I can see that Peter Dobbins is the kind of researcher who is not scared to think 'outside the box'. It's just a pity, however, that there always seems to be people like Whitlow Au who would dismiss the theory out of hand. As a member of the general public – whom scientists ultimately serve – I would rather have my tax money back open-minded researchers like Peter Dobbins than doubtful researchers like Whitlow Au.
It’s my opinion that if Au had come up with such a hypothesis first he wouldn’t have thought it ‘wild’ at all. In any case, I think the basis of Au’s argument against Dobbins’ hypothesis is rather weak. Has he never heard of the simple concept of ‘adaptation’? In order to survive ‘life’ always makes a plan. What Au’s argument boils down to is this (and I will give an analogy to illustrate my point): A man with no arms who learns to write, paint, fish, eat and even brush his teeth with his feet would not have used his arms to perform the same tasks while he still had them. Why? Because clearly, he can do the same things with his feet!
Posted by: Pat Douglas Barron | March 21, 2007 02:28 PM
I believe your reporter was taken in a bit by the potential glamour of the subject. Dobbins was careful to point out the basic paper was researched by two of his students (pg 28) and does not relate in any physiological way to the actual hearing system of the bottlenose dolphin (pg 27). The subject of potential involvement of the dentition in hearing was introduced as a concept in the 1980's because of a lack of understanding of the physiology of the auditory modality in dolphins and an apparently limited background in antenna theory by the proposers. It was never formalized.
The dolphin system is much better understood now. It employs a gradient density lens-type antenna that is optimal for forward looking while maintaining good hydrodynamic form.
See www.hearingresearch.net/files/dolphinbiosonar.htm for a more current view and many additional features of the system.
Posted by: James T Fulton | March 26, 2007 12:40 AM