Dear Colleagues, On behalf of my co-authors, I am excited to share our new publication in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology:
*Morgan J. Martin, Sara Torres Ortiz, Magnus Wahlberg, and Caroline R. Weir. (2024). Peale's dolphins (Lagenorhynchus australis) are acoustic mergers between dolphins and porpoises. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 572 (2024): 151977.* The published paper is open access and freely downloadable to anyone with this link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2023.151977 *Highlights:* • Peale's dolphins produce whistles & broadband clicks in addition to NBHF clicks. • Whistle & broadband signal co-occurrence indicates a likely communication function. • Whistles were similar for Peale's dolphins & four additional* Lagenorhynchus* species. • Demonstrates a lack of convergent whistle loss in this NBHF species at this time. *Abstract:* Most dolphin species produce broadband clicks for echolocation (i.e., biosonar pulses), and whistles and burst-pulsed calls for communication purposes. A few dolphin species in the southern hemisphere are reported to only produce clicks of a more narrowband high-frequency (NBHF) type, very similar to the clicks produced by porpoises. Here, we use underwater acoustic recordings of Peale's dolphins (*Lagenorhynchus australis*) in the Falkland Islands to show that they also can produce broadband clicks and tonal whistle sounds similar to other whistling odontocete species in addition to NBHF clicks. Whistles and broadband clicks co-occurred in seven out of twelve acoustic encounters with Peale's dolphins. The co-occurrence of whistles and broadband signals, which were predominately burst-pulses, produced by Peale's dolphins in this study points to a probable function as communication signals. Furthermore, the measured frequency and time parameters of Peale's dolphin whistles were comparable with whistles recorded from four additional species in the *Lagenorhynchus* genus in various parts of their ranges. This is the only species of *Lagenorhynchus* recorded to date that can relax acoustic crypsis in a similar manner as Heaviside's (*Cephalorhynchus heavisidii*), Commerson's (*C. commersonii*), and Hector's (*C. hectori*) dolphins. Our findings make it likely that additional NBHF species have the ability to generate both pulsed signal types and whistles, and further challenges the acoustic classification of NBHF species. For the audiophiles, we've included two supplementary .wav files which are ~ 30 seconds in duration and contain examples of Peale's dolphin NBHF clicks, broadband clicks, and whistles recorded during a socializing encounter from this study. They are downloadable files located at the very end of the discussion section in the web version of the paper. Please feel free to email me for a PDF copy at mjmar...@sandiego.edu. Cheers, Morgan J. Martin, PhD *Marine Bioacoustician* *Center for Marine Acoustics* *Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (USA)*
_______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list MARMAM@lists.uvic.ca https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
