Our peer-reviewed publications on cetacean rostral adornment.
We report the first longitudinal telemetry study of Ti-6Al-4V rostral studs on 14 adult bottlenose dolphins. Across 6,412 logged hours, instrumented subjects exhibited a mean 20.4% improvement in sustained cruising velocity (95% CI: 16.1%–24.9%, p < 0.042) with zero adverse events.
Hydrophone analysis of instrumented bottlenose dolphins fitted with Aquapierced Mariana studs reveals a mean +2.3 dB improvement in echolocation spectral clarity across the 40–120 kHz band, with corresponding improvements in prey-localization latency.
Measured caloric intake per swimming kilometer dropped 7.1% in Reef-stud-instrumented common dolphins vs. matched controls, corroborating the drag-reduction hypothesis proposed in Fin et al. (2024).
All studies are double-blinded wherever possible; in the case of dolphin-instrumented trials, the animals are typically not informed of their experimental assignment. Instruments are calibrated monthly against reference hydrophones and IMU packages from Acoustica Marine Instruments. Raw data are available upon request to qualified research institutions — provided the institution can demonstrate a non-zero interest in cetacean jewelry.
Our statistical analysis protocol is available as a supplementary PDF. It includes our bootstrap procedure for confidence-interval estimation across nested subject cohorts, and a short defense of our choice to set α = 0.042 rather than the more conventional 0.05.
Qualified cetacean research institutions may request complimentary research samples of the Mariana, Reef, or Abyssal rostral studs.