The dolphin is the wood duck of pelagic fishes, so spectacularly colorful that it

seems impossible it could have evolved by accident. The back and head are
iridescent, glowing neon blue and chartreuse green. The sides and belly are gold,
sprinkled with bright blue spots. And, like some other pelagics, the fish has the
ability to light up with shimmering waves of color across its body, almost as if
its skin were embedded with moving lights.

In fact, biologists say the fishs color is the result not only of pigment, but of
microscopic structures in the skin, which the fish can manipulate to change its
color. The color changes could have evolved for spawning selection, or perhaps
as a camouflage when approached by predators, as with many bottom creatures.
In any case, the spectacular color in life leaves no doubt when a dolphin dies; the
skin almost instantly turns an ugly, blotchy gray-silver or dull yellow.

Dolphins are found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, anywhere that the
water remains at 70 degrees or warmer throughout the winter. In U.S. waters
they migrate seasonally, following bait northward along the Atlantic coast to
Virginia and beyond in spring, back toward the Keys in winter, but good numbers
remain in Florida waters throughout the summer as well.

The dolphin is unique among pelagic fishes in that the mature males have a
distinctly different shape than the females; the forehead of an adult bull is high
and blunt, while the cow has a more typical, streamlined forehead. (The males
look just like the females until they approach adulthood.) There are no reports of
the male using this head as a battering ram in mating battles, but its pretty
clearly a secondary sexual characteristic.

Dolphin reportedly can reach speeds up to 50 mph, and sometimes run down
flyingfish in the air, though more commonly they race along just under the
surface, watching a flyer and eating it the second it touches down. They also eat
lots of squid, small bonito and other pelagic bait.