Toad in the Hole
June 07, 2005
Tuesday Holy Crap! Science! Blogging
Nature tells us of a cultural tradition of tool use in cetaceans: Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia have been seen using sponges as snout protectors.
They snatch the somewhat cone-shaped sponges off their bases and keep them over their noses while rooting out burrowing organisms from the local sea bottom. I'm thinking this is as much clothing as tools, for the presumed original use of clothing: protection. When they start decorating the sponges, we can call it fashion. And then they'll need undersea closets. Somebody call SpongeBob's architect.
Posted at June 7, 2005 04:38 PM