# @science on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DXuY_qEGQ6N
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/64957439-science-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f9abad343e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-04-29T18:00:31.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Science 🧬 (@science) — https://gondola.cc/science

## Caption

In front of the dolphin's blowhole, in the area we call our forehead, is their melon. The melon consists of fatty tissue and fluid and serves as the lens through which sound is focused during echolocation. Echolocation is seeing with sound, much like sonar on a submarine. They can only echolocate in the water and not through the air. Sound waves are created in the nasal sacs and focused through the melon at various frequencies, allowing the dolphin to "see" with sound.⁠
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The sound waves travel through the melon and into the water and bounce off objects of interest (like an echo underwater, hence the name). The sound waves then travel back to the dolphin and are received by their lower jaw, which is also filled with a fatty fluid. The sound waves travel from the jaw to the inner ear, to the nerves connected directly to the brain, where they translate the sound into an image. ⁠
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Echolocation works similarly to an ultrasound. It gives a dolphin the capacity to explore their environment 3-dimensionally and aids in navigation and hunting in low-light and low-visibility environments. They emit sounds, or clicks, from their nasal passages, which are then passed through their melon (forehead). The melon is filled with fatty tissue and fluid and acts like an acoustic lens to focus the sounds in different directions. The sound waves then bounce off objects of interest and are received by the dolphin’s lower jaw as an echo. This information is then passed to the brain via the inner ear. Echolocation is very efficient. Bottlenose dolphins are capable of distinguishing an object the size of a ping-pong ball from a football field away.⁠
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#dolphins #sonar #echolocation #science#biology

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## Tags

science, dolphins, echolocation, sonar, biology

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