🐬 Meet The Dolphin! Mind-Blowing Facts & Fun for Kids 🌊🤩

Dolphins range in size from the 1.7 meters or 5 feet 7 inches long and 50 kilograms or 110 pounds weight. Maui's dolphin to the 9.5 meters or 31 feet long and 10 tons or 11 short tons weight orca. They have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers. Though not quite as flexible as seals, they are faster. Some dolphins can briefly travel at speeds of 29 kilometers or 18 miles per hour or leap about 9 meters or 30 feet from water. Dolphins use their conical teeth to capture fast-moving prey. They have well-developed hearing which is adapted for both air and water. It is so well-developed that some can survive even if they are blind. Some species are well-adapted for diving to great depths. They have a layer of fat or blubber under the skin to keep warm in the cold water. Dolphins are widespread. Most species prefer the warm waters of the tropic zones, but some, such as the right whale dolphin, prefer colder climates. Dolphins feed largely on fish and squid, but a few, such as the orca, feed on large mammals such as seals. Dolphins produce a variety of vocalizations, usually in the form of clicks and whistles. Dolphins have torpedo-shaped bodies with generally non-flexible necks, limbs modified into flippers, a tail fin, and bulbous heads. Dolphin skulls have small eye orbits, long snouts, and eyes placed on the sides of its head. They lack external ear flaps. Dolphins have conical teeth, as opposed to porpoises' spade-shaped teeth. These conical teeth are used to catch swift prey such as fish, squid, or large mammals, such as seals. Breathing involves expelling stale air from their blowhole in an upward blast which may be visible in cold air, followed by inhaling fresh air into the lungs. Dolphins have rather small, unidentifiable spouts. All dolphins have a thick layer of blubber, thickness varying on climate. This blubber can help with buoyancy, protection to some extent, as predators would have a hard time getting through a thick layer of fat and energy for leaner times. The primary usage for blubber is insulation from the harsh climate. Calves generally are born with a thin layer of blubber, which develops at different paces depending on the habitat. Dolphins have a two-chambered or three-chambered stomach that is similar in cellular structure to that of terrestrial carnivores. They have fundic and pyloric chambers. Dolphins are highly social animals, often living in pods of up to a dozen individuals, though pod sizes and structures vary greatly between species and locations. In places with a high abundance of food, pods can merge temporarily, forming a superpod. Such groupings may exceed 1,000 dolphins. Membership in pods is not rigid, interchange is common. They establish strong social bonds and will stay with injured or ill members, helping them to breathe by bringing them to the surface if needed. Dolphins have also been seen protecting swimmers from sharks by swimming circles around the swimmers or charging the sharks to make them go away. Dolphins also display culture, something long believed to be unique to humans and possibly other primate species. A discovery in Australia found Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins teaching their young to use tools. They cover their snouts with sponges to protect them while foraging. This knowledge is mostly transferred by mothers to daughters. Using sponges as mouth protection is a learned behavior. Generally, dolphins sleep with only one brain hemisphere in slow-wave sleep at a time, thus maintaining enough consciousness to breathe and to watch for possible predators and other threats. Sleep stages earlier in sleep can occur simultaneously in both hemispheres. Dolphins can tolerate and recover from extreme injuries, such as shark bites, although the exact methods used to achieve this are not known. The healing process is rapid, and even very deep wounds can heal. Furthermore, even gaping wounds restore in such a way that the animal's body shape is restored, and infection of such large wounds seems rare.