Cetaceans Have Complex Brains for Complex Cognition

Authors

Lori Marino, Emory UniversityFollow
Richard C. Connor, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
R. Ewan Fordyce, University of Otago
Louis M. Herman, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Patrick R. Hof, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Louis Lefebvre, McGill University
David Lusseau, Dalhousie University
Brenda McCowan, University of California - Davis
Esther A. Nimchinsky, Rutgers University - Newark
Adam A. Pack, The Dolphin Institute
Luke Rendell, Saint Andrews University
Joy S. Reidenberg, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Diana Reiss, CUNY Hunter College
Mark D. Uhen, Smithsonian Institution
Estel Van der Gucht, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Hal Whitehead, Dalhousie University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-15-2007

Abstract

We believe that the time is ripe to present an integrated view of cetacean brains, behavior, and evolution based on the wealth of accumulated and recent data on these topics. Our conclusions support the more generally accepted view that the large brain of cetaceans evolved to support complex cognitive abilities.

Comments

Copyright: © 2007 Marino et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Recommended Citation

Marino L, Connor RC, Fordyce RE, Herman LM, Hof PR, et al. (2007) Cetaceans have complex brains for complex cognition. PLoS Biol 5(6): e139. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050139