Dolphin Killer whales have the second largest brain mass of any animal on earth, next to the sperm whale. The brain to body mass ratio in some is second only to humans. Self-awareness is seen, by some, to be a sign of highly developed, abstract thinking. Self-awareness, though not well-defined scientifically, is believed to be the precursor to more advanced processes like meta-cognitive reasoning (thinking about thinking) that are typical of humans. Research in this field has suggested that cetaceans, among others, possess self-awareness. The most widely used test for self-awareness in animals is the mirror test in which a mirror
On Top of the Whale On Top of the Whale On Top of the Whale () is a 1982 Dutch surreal and magic-realistic fantasy film directed by Chilean Raúl Ruiz while he was in exile and "...is one of his most delirious and ambitious hoax-like fictions". The film employs the use of six different languages, including an invented one. The story follows a Dutch anthropologist and his wife and child who are invited to the house of a communist millionaire in Patagonia (an area located in Chile and Argentina) to study the last two surviving Yachanes Indians. The film unfolds as an ethnography and starts