How do marine mammals, like dolphins and whales, use echolocation in the ocean?

Marine mammals such as dolphins and whales use echolocation to navigate and locate prey in the ocean. Echolocation is the use of sound waves to locate objects in the environment, much like sonar. When a marine mammal emits a sound wave, it travels through the water and bounces off objects, sending an echo back to the animal. The animal can then interpret the echo to determine the location, size, and shape of the object.

Marine mammals have specialized organs for echolocation, such as the melon in dolphins and the spermaceti organ in sperm whales. These organs produce and focus the sound waves into a beam that is directed in a specific direction. The returning echo is received by the animal's lower jaw and transmitted to the inner ear, where it is interpreted by the brain.

Echolocation is especially useful for marine mammals that live in murky waters or in darkness, where visibility is limited. Dolphins, for example, use echolocation to locate schools of fish or to navigate through complex environments such as coral reefs. Sperm whales use echolocation to locate squid, their primary prey, in the deep ocean where light does not penetrate.