A new study found that 53 sea creatures that were previously thought to be silent actually audibly communicate. About 50% of the creatures in the study are turtles.
Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen, a PhD student at University of Zurich, Switzerland, initiated the study in hopes of confirming whether choanate vertebrates, which have a thinner or softer wall at posterior opening of the nasal cavity, all communicate acoustically. He discovered that these 53 species not only make sound, but they do so in connection to a desired action or response.
Turtles, for example, begin making sound when they are still in their egg, indicating they will hatch soon. This is one reason why they will often hatch simultaneously. They will also communicate when they wish to mate with a partner.
“We found widespread evidence for acoustic behavior among all choanate vertebrates. Our recordings include 53 species that belong to groups often thought to be non-vocal and commonly neglected in vocal communication research,” the report states.
The discovery not only exposes the false assumption about species that were not thought to communicate this way. It also points to a common ancestor that all choanate vertebrates evolved from over the course of more than 400 million years.