Whales are known for their eerie undersea songs, but now experts say those melodic tones are far more complex than previously believed. Researchers were able to decipher hidden- language like structures with the tunes, those that seem to have evolved over time.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Whales are known for their eerie undersea songs but now experts say those
00:08melodic tones are far more complex than previously believed. For decades it was
00:15thought that human speech was the penultimate communication method on
00:18earth. However these findings suggest that whale songs might just rival our
00:22own communication. The researchers were able to decipher hidden language like
00:25structures within the tunes. Those that seem to have evolved over time and while
00:29they often lack semantic meaning, the songs are full of information the
00:32oceanic mammals are communicating to one another. In fact humpback whales in
00:40particular have better speech efficiency than human languages. This allows the
00:44creatures to share vital possibly life-saving information much more quickly
00:47than our species. Meaning whales may even be capable of developing articulate
00:51speech patterns but their families evolutionary trajectory favored brevity
00:55for survival. With the researchers saying that the humpback whale language is the
00:59most similar to human speech with regards to its patterns. What's more they
01:03teach their songs to their young just like humans culturally passing down
01:06complex compositions.