They also don’t get enough sleep in the morning: Scientists saw dolphins yawn for the first time and it changed everything (video)

Doctors have long described yawning as an unconscious three-stage action: slowly opening the mouth and inhaling, keeping the mouth open, and quickly closing it while exhaling. But new research suggests it’s time to reconsider this definition, writes the Daily Mail.

In a new study, scientists from Mie University managed to capture the spectacular image of dolphins yawning underwater in the wild for the first time. The study’s authors believe this definition has the potential to change how we define the stretch reflex.

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According to the study’s author, dolphin researcher Tadamichi Morisaki, first of all, this observation brings aquatic mammals much closer to humans than thought; Second, this behavior of dolphins means that it is time to rethink the general definition of yawning.

During their observations, scientists discovered that dolphins appeared more energetic after opening their jaws widely; This is similar to our behavior after yawning. Morisaki said the new definition of yawning should probably eliminate breathing and focus only on the movement of the mouth: slow opening, wide opening and fast closing.

Yawning is a normal human activity, and after watching nearly 2,000 hours of video, he and his colleagues concluded that dolphins do indeed yawn underwater. Observations show that mammals do this mostly in the morning, probably when they are sleepy. Interestingly, as in humans, this movement seems to revitalize the animals: the dolphins acted more energetically for a while after yawning.

Morisaka states that the fact that dolphins yawn without breathing shows that the act of inhaling and exhaling during yawning is not critical for animals, including humans. The strange behavior of dolphins was first noticed in dolphins in captivity in 2021. Morisaka and his colleagues noticed that the animals opened their mouths, resembling a yawn.

Scientists recall that initially this behavior of the animals seemed more strange than surprising to scientists. However, the team could not clearly answer what exactly this behavior of the animals was because the opening of the mouth was not accompanied by breathing.

Note that similar behavior has been observed in another captive marine mammal, the dugong. As a result, scientists suggested that opening its mouth underwater may be a behavioral characteristic of marine mammals in captivity.

Scientists started research to shed light on these events. For the research, the team watched 1,816 hours of dolphin video taken off the coast of Japan’s Mikura Island between 2012 and 2017. Scientists noticed dolphins opening their mouths in 94 videos, and in 89 of them, the mammals’ mouth openings had a clear purpose: threatening behavior, feeding, or social behavior. But the remaining five had no apparent reason to open their mouths.

The team also noted that the dolphins’ behavior fit the description exactly: Stage 1 – slow mouth opening, stage 2 – maintaining maximum mouth opening, stage 3 – rapid mouth closing. Additionally, all five yawns were recorded in the middle of the morning, when most individuals in the group were resting.

The authors of the study state that more research will be needed to understand why dolphins yawn, but this is already extremely surprising because this behavior of mammals has not been described by scientists before. In addition, scientists believe the scientific community should redefine yawning to exclude breathing because it is probably not necessary in the animal kingdom.

Previously Focus He wrote that scientists discovered that dolphins use their dimples in a strange way.