Dolphins making faces, or whatever the equivalent is for an animal that doesn’t have smile muscles. Looks like a lot of fun, and not only for the dolphins. Scientists behind a one-way mirror in an aquarium wall watched and recorded the dolphins over three years. What they saw was not only twirling and close-up looks and bubble play, but animals who recognize themselves. That’s a cognitive ability seen only in a few other animals, like humans, chimpanzees, and elephants. Even more interesting, the two young dolphins in this study, Bayley and Foster, showed self-recognition at an earlier age than chimps or humans. And that’s what scientists predicted, because dolphins develop earlier than humans or chimps in numerous social and physical ways. One thing that scientists looked at was self-directed behavior. They’re using the mirror to view themselves. They’re looking in their eyes closely. They may look at the insides of their mouths and wiggle their tongues. That kind of behavior appeared in one dolphin, Bayley, at seven months. In humans, mugging for the mirror doesn’t start until 12 months or later. Next was the mark test. The animal must notice and pay attention to a mark on a part of its body it couldn’t see without a mirror. The dolphins passed that too, at two years of age, which was the earliest that animal care rules would allow the scientists to draw things on dolphins. This gives us a new look at the development of dolphins’ extraordinary brains, and how that development compares to our own and that of other smart animals. And just for the record, Foster visited the camera a lot more than Bayley. Who says dolphins aren’t vain? [music]