Dolphins Are Magical Underwater Ultrasound Machines And They Can See Your Fetus

Screen Shot 2013-07-11 at 7.43.36 AM__1373543077_74.134.205.46Scientists have discovered the reason why you always hear about those crazy magical dolphin creatures swimming up to pregnant women while they are enjoying a dip in the ocean, and it’s because these rapists of the sea know that you got yourself knocked up and they can see your unborn fetus. Awkwaaaaard. What if you didn’t want anyone to know you are pregnant and you go swimming? You have to totally make peace with the fact that at least one other living creature knows, and it’s a damn nosey dolphin. From LiveScience.com:

Using echolocation, dolphins might be able to detect a pregnant woman’s developing fetus, some experts say.

Dolphins emit sounds in their environment and listen to the echoes that return ”” a process that helps them identify the shapes and locations of objects. Doctors use a similar technique to image a developing human baby. Both involve ultrasound ”” high-pitched pulses of sound above the range of human hearing.

At least one study has found that dolphins can perceive shapes through an opaque barrier, such as a box. “It would seem logical that they would have the potential to discriminate between different humans” who are pregnant or not, said Mike Walsh, an aquatic animal veterinarian at the University of Florida. After all, water is the perfect medium for ultrasound, Walsh said. Still, the dolphins may not know that what they’re seeing inside the pregnant woman is a person, he said.

Marino said she thinks dolphins probably see some sort of image of the baby. “We know from other studies that they are very good at going from a visual image to an acoustic image,” and vice versa, Marino said. Just as sonograms give people a visual image of their babies, echolocation might give dolphins a mental image of them.

 

“An opaque barrier, such as a box.” LULZ, science just called your personal private lady baby area a box. Because no one knows if the dolphins actually see a growing fetus, because no one has bothered asking the dolphins, get with it science!- the dolphins may not know what they are seeing inside a woman is a person. So for all we know, dolphins are either seeing a person growing inside of you or they may just think it’s a box of Twinkies or something. All of this means to you, dear reader, is that if any of you are knocked up and planning a trip to Sea World, I demand that you take notes on whether or not the dolphins enslaved in captivity act all weird around you or question if you have set up a registry at Target yet. I need to know these things and science won’t tell me!

(Photo: Pannochka/shutterstock)

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