Open AccessEfficient coding in dolphin surface behavioral patterns
Author(s) -
FerreriCancho Ramon,
Lusseau David
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
complexity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.447
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1099-0526
pISSN - 1076-2787
DOI - 10.1002/cplx.20266
Subject(s) - coding (social sciences) , computer science , fishery , biology , mathematics , statistics
We show that the law of brevity, i.e. the tendency of words to shorten as their frequency increases, is also found in dolphin surface behavioral patterns. As far as we know, this is the first evidence of the law in another species, suggesting that coding efficiency is not unique to humans. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2009.