echolocation
EK-oh-loh-KAY-shun
Definition
The biological sonar system used by certain animals, such as dolphins, to locate and identify objects by emitting sounds and interpreting the returning echoes.
Etymology
The word is a modern scientific coinage formed from the Greek 'ēkhō' (sound, reverberation) and the Latin 'locatio' (placement/positioning), emerging in the mid-20th century to describe the acoustic navigation used by bats and marine mammals.
In the news
In the article, the author explains that wearing a sponge over their rostrum interferes with a dolphin's echolocation, making hunting more cognitively demanding as the animals must compensate for distorted echoes.
Dolphins off Western Australia carry sea sponges on their beaks while foraging along the ocean floor — a rare tool-use behaviour passed mainly from mothers to daughters, making it one of the few animal cultures shaped so strongly by gender
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com