Behavior | featured news

Imagine two dolphins swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. You hear a series of clicks, whistles and whines coming from each, much like a conversation in dolphin language... "These whistles actually turned out to be names. They're abstract names, which is unheard of in the animal kingdom beyond people," said Randall Wells, one of the authors of a new study on dolphin behavior, told CNN affiliate WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida.

Scientists have identified four regions of DNA that play a major role in controlling animal behavior: telling a mouse how long a burrow to dig and whether to add an escape tunnel.