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[Lorry]

After a lot of tests made with dolphins there was demonstrated that one of the smartest animal (fish) in the world are dolphins because of theirs intellectual capacities. What kind of animals or birds do you know which also are the smartest in the world?

[Nicoli]

maybe all of them are smart, in their own way and at a certain level, adequate for their living environment. Recently, there was an article on BBC about octopuses that can use a coconut shell as a tool for hiding, which until recently was considered an ability that only humans possess! so we are continually discovering this amazing world
you can check details here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8408233.stm

[Laurentine]

I really love them, they are so funny and cute, there is no doubt that they were created t be our friends. And they really are the smartest, but I think that they just are trained very well. However, they deserve to be named as the smartest because they really are smart.

[b-j]

dolphins aren't a kind of fish, they're mammalians living in water, they breath air and cann't take oxygen from water.

...smartest !
may be, but there are other animals like birds and rats known to be smart also.

[M.Helen]

Maybe you know, maybe don't; I've found them, I've read and I've posted them:
When sleeps, the dolphin swims alongside the water surface, about 30 cm below. Every 30 seconds executes a breathing reflex and opens the eyes. After some authors, their sleep is an alternative inhibition of each brain hemisphere.

Dolphin eyes are protected against salt from sea water by a tear membrane with the consistency of a glue.

[M.Helen]

They can stay under water, without coming to the surface, about 15 minutes. The Dolphin capacity to dive without breathing for a long time is due, apparently, to the great number of red blood cells. Dolphins can dive to the depth of 500 m and can reach in the air, with a jump, 6 m.
How fast can a dolphin swim? Top speed is around 32 km / h, but the common dolphin can forward the speed of 60 km / h.

[M.Helen]

Dolphin stomach has three compartments which resembles that of cattle. The Dolphins uses their teeth to grab, to grasp and not to chew. Dolphins are unable to digest the sugar, because they do not meet with the sugar in their natural environment. The cetacean’s milk is one of the richest known by science, containing 40% fat and 10-14% protein.

[M.Helen]

Often, in the body of dolphins, following dissection, are found remains of legs to prove that they were once land mammals. Dolphins breathe through lungs and not through gills. Babies of Dolphins during labor are expelled from the mother's abdomen and with the tail before and not the head, as are born all pups of mammals. Explanation for this is that they are mammals that breathe air, and if the baby were born vice versa, so with the head before, during labor, which can take up to 10-12 hours, the baby would drown.

[M.Helen]

Dolphin from the dermis and epidermis, are missing the sweat and sebaceous glands, and hair also, reduced to some whiskers, to newborn babies. Under the skin there is a layer of fat that can reach to 30 cm maximum. Dolphin nose opens with a single nostril situated in a small recess in the head, called event. The sense of pressure is due to an organ filled with special oil, located on the front of the head and called - bowler.

[M.Helen]

Generally, a dolphin maintains their constant temperature around 38 ° C and lives in a medium with salinity ranging between 17-35. Various studies on dolphin brain led to the conclusion that they ranks on the first place after the human beings. The average life of the dolphin is 20-30 years. Dolphin is an aquatic mammal able to emit and receive sound signals simultaneously on different horses.

[M.Helen]

Dolphins usually are very communicative, but in captivity begin to lose hearing and their brain weight decreases by up to 30%. The supervised swimming with the dolphins is used increasingly as curative method. Are known few cases in which several people were healed of various diseases after they swam with dolphins. Females sing for days after giving birth to babies, so that they can recognize his mother in the future.

[M.Helen]

At present are known about 70 species of dolphins and whales and could exist and other yet undiscovered. Some are known only because of of single individuals or of skulls.
There are freshwater dolphins. They are smaller, their layer of fat was greatly reduced because the water temperature is higher in rivers and lakes. Due to water turbidity they are almost blind. They meet in South America, India, Pakistan, China.