Turtles: Scientists discover babies 'sing' inside the egg
- Published
Do turtles sing to each other? This scientist thinks so!
Scientists have discovered that some sea creatures have a special method to talk to each other.
Some of these include turtles - which scientists used to think were silent!
The researchers used special microphones to record the animals and discovered they were communicating through their breath.
As well as finding out new information about sea creatures - the scientists think they have discovered some exciting new information about evolution.
Listening to turtles
Baby turtles face a tough job when they hatch - to get back into the sea. But how do they know the best time to hatch?
A PhD student at the University of Zurich in Switzerland had an idea that sea creatures like turtles might communicate with each other.
He used small microphones and cameras to look at 53 species around the world - including some at Chester Zoo in the UK!
As well as 50 turtles, he looked at a tuatara, a lungfish, and a caecilian.
Tuatara are reptiles from New Zealand, that look a bit like lizards
Lungfish are long fish that live in freshwater like lakes and rivers, found in Africa, Australia and South America
Caecilians look a bit like worms, and are found in the ground or in streams in tropical habitats
Secret communication
You can find Caecilians in South and Central America, as well as Africa, and Southern Asia
Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen - the PhD student - discovered these creatures were communicating through their breath.
He found that baby sea turtles actually sing from within their egg to make sure they all hatch at the same time!
This can help them avoid being eaten by predators when they hatch.
The creatures also communicate when they are looking to find a mate, so they can continue their species.
Dr Jorgewich-Cohen said because these creatures communicate so quietly, humans had not thought to check, and assumed they were silent for years.
Big lessons for evolution
Tuataras also communicate through breathing, according to Gabriel's new research
As well as finding out the fascinating way turtles communicate, the scientists think the have learned some new information about evolution.
The research suggests that all vertebrates that breathe through the nose and use sound to communicate actually come from one shared ancestor.
A vertebrate is a creature with a spine - humans are vertebrates, and so are turtles!
Animal ancestors
By looking at sea creatures, we can actually discover a lot about how life developed!
When we talk about evolution, we look at ancestors - creatures from the past that new species evolved from.
Because it goes so far back in time, scientists still have not decided if living things like animals and humans descended from lots of different species or just one ancestor.
This team of scientists are saying that all creatures that communicate with sound - and have a spine - came from one species 400 million years ago.
This is another new piece of information for scientists looking at evolution, as other research had suggested it was only 200 million years ago that animals began to communicate.
Secrets from the deep
Before creatures were on the land, they lived in the sea
We can learn a lot about how animals evolved by looking at sea creatures.
This is because our human ancestors - great apes - only take us back around 20 million years.
Before animals were on the land, they were in the sea, so by studying creatures in the depths we can look even further back into the past!
20 million years ago might seem quite a long way away to us - but to scientists looking at evolution from the beginning of life on earth it's fairly recent.
- Published23 March 2021
- Published9 October 2019
