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A Dolphin By Any Other Name
SloppyElvis writes "CNN is reporting that scientists have proven that Dolphins can communicate with each other by name. From the article: 'researchers synthesized signature whistles with the caller's voice features removed and played them to dolphins through an underwater speaker' to which the mammals responded. This form of identification in language was previously only known to exist in the human world." Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs.
This form of identification in language was previously only known to exist in the human world ... except for the hundreds of thousands of parrot owners througout the world. My african greys call each other by name when asking for anything.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
"Saying dolphins have names implies they are self aware. If this is true, then much of our biological science is in error."
Hunh? What biological science supports the position that dolphins are not self-aware? They seem to be as self-aware as apes, and are certainly much more self-aware than even human infants.
"Nevertheless, the equation that dolphins make noise + response to that noise = names, then any animal that makes a noise to communicate to other like animals probably is using names."
No, you missed the point. The point is that the noises are NOT the same. They can be reproduced back in all sorts of different tones and inflections that makes them different "noises," but there is a core structure of sorts, that apparently defines the meaning apart from the noise. That's not proof of any sort complex grammatical structure, sure, but it's far more like language than cats, dogs, parrots, and so forth, which respond to and repeat noises, without any particular regard to some subtle, abstract structure.
Furthermore, I'm not sure I know of any other social animal that acts like this: individuals called specifically as individuals by other members of the same species in the wild. That's pretty amazing.