A study published earlier this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal claimed that mother Bottlenose dolphins use baby talk or "motherese" to communicate with their calves.

Of course they do! I mean, have you ever seen a baby dolphin? They're just so cute: Who could help but speak baby talk to them?

The study analyzed recordings of 19 adult female dolphins, which showed that mother dolphins use higher frequencies and broader frequency ranges when communicating with their babies.

The same is true for humans, who instinctively speak at a higher pitch when talking to babies. Scientists believe human baby talk promotes bonding between mother and child.

The researchers said in the study,

Our data provide an example of convergent evolution of motherese in a nonhuman mammal and support the hypothesis that motherese can facilitate vocal learning and bonding in nonhumans as well as humans.

And while the researchers admit they are still unsure of what the "mechanistic driver(s) or function(s) of" motherese is for the dolphins, I stand by my hypothesis that they're just so cute that the mama dolphins can't help it.