How did the first dolphin get born without a mother and a father? 

My kindergartner has an oral presentation due on dolphins and wants to
answer that question for her project. Can you help me research this? I
am looking for a evolutionary approach not a religious one. The oral
presentation includes a lesson that she needs to teach the whole
class.

Thanks for your help! Paula

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 18 Oct 2005 21:04 PDT

It is going to be difficult to talk to kindergartners about the
evolution of species. I have written a paragraph using simple terms; I
don't know if it can be made any simpler while still conveying the
meaning. Is this the kind of thing you're looking for?

"The very first dolphin to be born had a mother and a father. But the
mother and the father weren't exactly like their baby. Not all of the
qualities that cause scientists to identify an animal as a dolphin
were present in the mother and the father. A change called a mutation
caused the baby to be just a little bit different from the parents.
That small change was meaningful because it meant that the baby was a
new species, a different kind of creature."

Please let me know if I am on the right track. If this is the sort of
material you seek, it would be helpful to know approximately how many
words of text will be needed.

Hi paula,

Thank you for a very interesting question.

Well, it's been like *forever* since I was in kindergarten... however,
I've tried to simplify my research findings on dolphin evolution so
the information is applicable to young children.  :)

The last site listed has dolphin sounds.

=========

-- M a m m a l s --
http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/support/lib/seas/seasQA/QAs/m/mammals.html

Q&A 15.   
"Is it true that dolphins evolved from land mammals? 

All cetaceans, including dolphins, are believed to have evolved from
land mammals that returned to the sea during the Paleocene epoch about
70 million years ago."

=========

Enchanted Learning - ALL ABOUT WHALES! 
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/

Cetaceans are the group of mammals that includes the whales, dolphins,
and porpoises.

TWO TYPES OF CETACEANS
Cetaceans include the whales, dolphins and porpoises. There are over
75 species of Cetaceans.

See image middle of page:
Young cetaceans are frequently mottled in color, camouflaging them
from predators. Newborns have a sparse covering of hair which they
lose as adults

=========

http://www.whale-images.com/

"Whales and Dolphins are Cetaceans - a group of mammals which belong
to the order Cetacea. There are two classifications of Cetacea -
Odontoceti (toothed Whales) and Mysticeti (baleen whales)."

[edit]

"Dolphins

Belonging to the odontoceti or toothed whale cetacea, and family
Delphinidae, the largest family of the cetacean order, there are 26
living species of dolphins. Most species of dolphins feed mainly on
small schooling fish and squid although some species prey on crabs,
shrimps, and lobsters. Dolphins can be found in all oceans and major
seas around the world. Each species of dolphin has adapted to life in
their particular marine environment, allowing them to specialize in
catching and eating food specific to that area."

=========

Dolphins' big brains evolved in spurts
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6602

"Dolphins' earliest ancestors were land-based hoofed creatures that
became aquatic, losing their hind legs and gaining flippers over time.
About 35 million years ago, those flippered creatures were about the
size of small baleen whales - about 9 metres long - had sharp teeth
and an EQ of about 0.5.

But around that time, that group mysteriously died off, spawning a new
group called the odontocetes, or toothed whales, which include today's
dolphins, porpoises, belugas and narwhals."

=========

THE ORIGIN OF WHALES
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/

"Fossil remains indicate that whales and other cetaceans (the whales,
dolphins, and porpoises) evolved from hoofed land mammals (even-toed
ungulates or artiodactyls, related to sheep, pigs, deer, camels, and
cows). These animals returned to the sea about 50 million years ago,
during the Eocene Epoch.

Going back to the oceans required many adaptations for living in the
water, including a backwards and upwards shift of the nostrils,
coverings for the nostrils, a streamlined shape, loss of the rear
limbs, change of the forelimbs into flippers, addition of flukes for
swimming, modification of senses for use in the water, loss of most
hair, and addition of a layer of insulating blubber."

=========

Enchanted Learning 
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/

"Primitive whales evolved during the early Eocene period, at least 53
- 54 million years ago. Fossil remains indicate that whales evolved
from hoofed land mammals - perhaps the shore-dwelling, hyena-like
Mesonychid that started a returned, bit by bit, to the sea roughly 50
million years ago."

=========

Whale Glossary - DOLPHIN
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/

"Dolphins are small cetaceans that have a long, beaklike snout, a
falcate (sickle-shaped) dorsal fin, and conical teeth. They are
Odontoceti (toothed whales)."

=========

Enchanted Learning.com - Bottlenose Dolphin
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/activities/whaletemplates/Bottledolphintemplate.shtml

(Print out and pass around the class)

EnchantedLearning.com Dolphin Anatomy: Label Me!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/label/labeldolphin.shtml

Print out and pass around the class:
(Read the definitions, then label the dolphin diagram below.)

=========

Dolphins and How They Live
http://www.oceanicresearch.org/dolpspt.html

"In the simplest terms, dolphins are marine mammals, meaning that,
like land mammals, they have lungs and breathe air, they give birth to
live young, and they feed their young milk. Dolphins are classified in
the same taxonomic order as whales, making them basically just small
whales.

Evolutionary biologists believe that all of the whales and dolphins
actually evolved from a land mammal which took to the seas to hunt for
food over 100 million years ago. Nowhere is this more evident than in
the skeleton of the dolphin, which still retains the finger bones of
its ancestors, even though the fingers have long since been lost in
favor of a flipper. The rear legs have been lost altogether. Instead,
the dolphin has a powerful tail called a fluke.

Over millions of years, the body of the dolphin has evolved into a
sleek, torpedo shape, allowing it to pass through the water with as
little resistance as possible. The powerful fluke combined with the
hydrodynamic shape allow the dolphin to swim at speeds of over 30
miles per hour through the water.

Because the dolphin has lungs, it must surface to breathe, and hold
its breath while underwater. Again, evolution has equipped the dolphin
well. Its blowhole is actually the dolphin?s nose, located
conveniently on the top of its head, so it can take a breath without
sticking its whole head out of the water."

=========

Evolution
http://library.thinkquest.org/17963/ev-tax-spp.html

Dolphins are mammals, and as such, evolved from terrestrial creatures.

[terrestrial = of or relating to the earth or its inhabitants] 

==========

How did dolphins evolve?  (complex explanation)
http://www.easydaycharters.com/dolphin_faq.htm

"The earliest recognizable cetaceans lived about 50 million years ago.
These evolved from the Mesonychids: large land mammals, some of which
were carnivorous, some herbivorous. The earliest cetaceans were
members of the now extinct family Archaeoceti (the best known of which
are Zeuglodon and Basilosaurus). 38-25 million years ago the
Archaeoceti disappeared and were replaced by the early Odontocetes
(toothed whales) and Mysticetes (baleen whales). The earliest dolphins
appeared in the late Miocene period, some 11 million years ago.

The land animals that are closest to whales and dolphins are the
Ungulates (hoofed animals). This was determined among others by
comparing the structure of body proteins."

=========

http://www.whale-images.com/facts_about_dolphins.htm

"Facts about Dolphins: PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
The body is black on the back, with striking light gray flanks and a
white belly. Two gray stripes run along the entire length of the back.
These markings are easily seen from above when the dolphin is riding
bow waves. The dolphin has a short snout, or beak, and long curved
pectoral flippers. Its black and grey dorsal fin is tall and curved.
When fully grown, the Pacific white-sided dolphin is about 2.5 metres
long and weighs up to 180 kilograms.
There are 29 teeth on each side of the upper jaw, and 32 on each side
of the lower jaw.

Facts about Dolphins: COMMUNICATION:
Like all dolphins, Pacific White Sided Dolphin use echolocation (a
series of rapid clicks) to locate objects, such as prey and obstacles.
They make a variety of very high-pitched squeals, whistles and whines.
These noises are most likely used to communicate with each other."

=========

If the class has a computer with speakers, they can listen to the
sounds of dolphins at:

EverythingDolphins.com
http://www.everythingdolphins.com/SoundsPG.htm

(scroll to numbers 1 - 38 and click on the number )

I listend to 7 and 25... awesome!)


Each and every dolphin has a different sound just like you and me, a
sound that other dolphins recognize as a particular individual.  Even
a new baby dolphin, (calf), can detect it's mother's whistle within
the pod soon after birth.

Utilizing their blowholes, air sacks and valves, dolphins can emit a
very wide variety of sounds.  In fact, the frequency levels range 10
times beyond what humans can hear!

This system is called "Echolocation", or "Sonar", just like what a
submarine uses to navigate while underwater.  Yet the dolphins sonar
is much more advanced than human technology and can pin point exact
information about it's surroundings ranging from size, distance and
even the nature of the object.

Dolphin Speech is so complex that the sounds even cross the species
barriers and enable different kinds of dolphins to communicate.  They
have been known to instruct each other as well as receive instructions
and act accordingly.

=========

keyword search:

enchanted learning dolphins
dolphins evolved
dolphin evolution
first dolphins
whales

=========

Best regards,
tlspiegel

Paula,
I rather have to agree with the above:  is this really the
kindergarden's project  - project level?

If so:
Can't your daughter find another question about dolphins?
She may be able to understand the above answer, or seem to, but I
doubt that she could teach the other kids so that they really
understood.  I hear the first question:  "Oh?  So how did the mother
and father make the first dolphin?"  (Probably by the youngster with a
brand new sibling)

Could she pick a question like:  How do scientists know that dolphins
descended from land animals?  What similarities are there between land
animals and dolphins?
And then answer using a picture of a dolphin skeleton and that of a
human arm (I wouldn't upset the group with a full human skeleton - I
found them scary), pointing out the relative bones in the flipper
compared with those of the arm.

If this would work, here are some sites that could be used. 
Or maybe the first one suggests another possible question.   

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/0506/index.html
http://capelookoutstudies.org/dolphins/skeleton.shtml
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/skeleton/Skelprintout.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/armandshoulder/arm_and_hand.shtml

Hope this can help.
Good luck, Myoarin