The Dolphin in History

Part 1

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The Dolphin in History

Papers delivered by Ashley Montagu and John C. Lilly at a symposium at the Clark Library, 13 October 1962

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY University of California, Los Angeles 1963

Foreword

Recently the dolphin has become the focus of much scientific interest and investigation which have led to flattering pronouncements about its remarkable intelligence, amiability, and astonishing friendliness towards man. It was in consequence of such activities that a symposium was held at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library to consider the background to contemporary studies of the dolphin. The presentations of Dr. Ashley Montagu and Dr. John C. Lilly were received so favorably that it was decided to make them more widely available in the present form.

As will be readily apparent to any reader, Dr. Montagu has demonstrated conclusively that had the writings of the ancients been heeded we should long since have paid proper respect to this intelligent mammal, and Dr. Lilly has reinforced such classical appreciation by an account of his own astonishing observations of dolphin behavior. It is to be hoped that these two accounts will contribute to a lasting appreciation of our remarkable aquatic friend.

C.D. O’Malley

DIVISION OF MEDICAL HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

THE HISTORY OF THE DOLPHIN

by Ashley Montagu

The friendly Dolphin, while within the maine, At libertie delightes, to sport and play, Himselfe is fresh, and doth no whit retaine The brinish saltnes of the boundless Sea Wherein he lives. Such is the secret skill Of Nature working, all thinges at her will. Henry Peacham, Minerva Britanna, 1612

The History of the Dolphin

By ASHLEY MONTAGU

I have met with a story, which, although authenticated by undoubted evidence, looks very like a fable. Pliny the Younger

The history of the dolphin is one of the most fascinating and instructive in the historiography and the history of ideas in the western world. Indeed, it provides one of the most illuminating examples of what has probably occurred many times in human culture—a virtually complete loss of knowledge, at least in most segments of the culture, of what was formerly well understood by generations of men. “Not in entire forgetfulness” in some regions of the world, but certainly in “a sleep and a forgetting” in the most sophisticated centers of the western world.

Dolphins are mammals. They belong in the order Cetacea, suborder Odontoceti, family Delphinidae. Within the Delphinidae there are some twenty-two genera and about fifty-five species. The count includes the Killer Whale, the False Killer Whale, the White Whale, and the Pilot Whale, all of which are true dolphins. There are two subfamilies, the Delphinapterinae, consisting of the two genera Monodon monocerus, the Narwhal, and Delphinapterus leucas, the White Whale or Beluga. These two genera are distinguished by the fact that none of the neck vertebrae are fused, whereas in all remaining genera, embraced in the subfamily Delphininae, at least the first and second neck vertebrae are fused.

It was Aristotle in his History of Animals (521b) who first classified whales, porpoises, and dolphins as Cetacea,τὰ κήτη οῖον δελφις καὶ φωκαὶνα καὶ φάλαινα. Aristotle’s account of the Cetacea was astonishingly accurately written, and quite evidently from firsthand knowledge of these animals.

While most dolphins are inhabitants of the seas, there are some that live in rivers, and quite a few that are denizens of fresh-water rivers removed many miles from the sea. With one exception the diet of dolphins is principally fish. The one exception is Sotalia teuszii, which lives in the Kamerun River, and is believed to feed exclusively on vegetable matter. The Ting Ling dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) lives in Ting Ling Lake, six hundred miles up the Yang-tse-Kiang. Another dolphin, the Susu or Ganges dolphin (Platanista gangetica) of Brahmapootra, the Ganges, and the Indus, has lenseless eyes and is almost blind. The fresh-water dolphins belong in the family Platanistidae.

It is of interest to note that, in connection with the vegetable feeding habits of the Kamerun dolphin, Lycophron, in his Alexandra, makes his dolphins feed on trees, and Ovid, in the Metamorphoses (III, 1, 202), describes a flood in which the dolphins take possession of the woods. Nonnus Panopolitanus, in the Dionysiaca (VI, 265-266), also describes dolphins as feeding on trees.

The normal range of length of dolphins is from 5 to 14 feet; the larger species, the whales, are considerably longer. Brain weight is between 1600 and 1700 grams in the familiar dolphins, and reaches 9200 grams and more in the whales. The large brain is associated with what, all observers familiar with these animals agree, is a quite considerable intelligence.

Here we must pause to make a plea for the proper usage of common names. The term “porpoise” refers to the small, beakless Delphinidae, which have a triangular dorsal fin and spade-shaped teeth. The name “dolphin” embraces all other members of the family, except the larger forms, which are called whales. The porpoises mostly belong in the genus Phocaena, the best known species of which, the Common Porpoise (Phocaena phocaena), never reaches a length exceeding 6 feet and weighs 100 to 120 pounds. There are some six species. The finless black porpoise constitutes the only other genus with a single species Neomeris phocaenoides.

All porpoises are dolphins. The Bottle-Nosed Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, is sometimes called a porpoise. This is incorrect. Tursiops is a true dolphin, and should not be called what it is not.

Here we shall be principally concerned with the Bottle-Nosed Dolphin and with the Common Dolphin. The Bottle-Nosed Dolphin has a short, well-defined snout two or three inches long, and is characterized by a prominent fin in the middle of the back. Coloration is dark above and light below. Gestation lasts some ten months, birth is monotocous, and the young are suckled for about 18 months. The tail is delivered first, and the infant, about three feet long and weighing about twenty-five pounds, is immediately quite active, though much in need of the care of its devoted mother. The infant will eventually grow to be between 11 and 12 feet in length, and weigh about 300 kilograms. Tursiops has an enormously wide range, being commonest along the Atlantic coast of America, from Maine to Florida, and occurs in the Bay of Biscay, in the Mediterranean Sea, and as far south as New Zealand.

The Common Dolphin, Delphinus delphis, is readily recognized by its well-defined narrow beak and distinctive coloration. The beak is some 5 to 6 inches narrower and finer than in the Bottle-Nosed Dolphin, and is sharply marked off by a deep V-shaped groove from the low reclining forehead. The Common Dolphin reaches a length up to 8½ feet. Its range of distribution is very wide, for it may be met in any temperate or warm sea throughout the world, and occurs at times in vast schools.

Whether the dolphin of classical antiquity is Delphinus or Tursiops is not usually determinable, although each undoubtedly played its independent role in the stories told of dolphins. From the recorded evidence available to us it is clear that, except for the larger species, the whales, all dolphins appear to be characterized by playfulness and friendliness toward man. There are, however, differences which appear to express themselves mostly in captivity. At least, Tursiops adjusts much better to captivity than does Delphinus. At marine studios Tursiops has established itself as a highly intelligent, playful, and friendly performer. Delphinus, on the other hand, while naturally all these things, in captivity tends to be timid and not very playful.

The Common and Bottle-Nosed Dolphins are those best known to the western world, but many of the traits which have recently been rediscovered concerning these creatures have been well known to other peoples for millennia. It is only a certain segment of the western world, its more sophisticated representation, and particularly the learned world, which dismissed as myths the tales told about dolphins in classical antiquity. And this is the real burden of the story I have to tell you. Some of these antique tales may have been myths, but as we shall see, many of them were not, and undoubtedly a number of the myths were based on real events partially embroidered by the imagination and improved, like good wine, by time. But good wine needs no bush, and I shall sample this wine as palatably as I find it.

The earliest representation of a dolphin I have been able to find is from a pictographic seal from Crete, estimated to date from 3500 to 2200 B.C. The earliest painting of a dolphin thus far recovered is from the ancient Peloponnesian city of Tiryns. The date is about 1600 B.C. In that city it is also represented in stucco floors. Several good examples of dolphins are furnished by seventh century Corinthian art. The dolphin is also well represented in Minoan art. In Cyprus it is frequently represented in Late Helladic vases, shards, amphorae, in metalwork, engravings, and in stucco floors as at Tiryns. Among the importations from Crete into Helladic art appear to have been certain stylized forms of the dolphin.

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