Sperm whales don’t just “click”—they structure information. 🐋🔊 Their vocalizations, called codas, are sequences of broadband clicks with precise timing patterns. Each click spans a wide frequency range (often centered around a few kHz but extending much higher), but the information isn’t mainly in pitch—it’s encoded in temporal spacing and rhythm. Think of it like this: human speech uses frequency (pitch), amplitude (loudness), and timing (syllables, pauses). Sperm whales lean heavily on timing patterns, forming discrete, repeatable sequences—almost like Morse code, but socially learned. Recent analyses using information theory and machine learning show that: • Codas follow non-random statistical distributions, similar to linguistic structures • Different whale groups (“clans”) use distinct rhythmic “dialects” • Sequences exhibit hierarchical organization, a key feature of human language • Individual whales can be identified by subtle variations in their click patterns In signal ...