Tell-tale signs of Alzheimer’s disease have been discovered in dolphins — the first time that clear evidence of the condition has been found in a wild animal.
The dolphins, who died after washing up on the coast of Spain, had the same twisted strands and protein clusters in their brains as human patients with dementia.
Scientists said that it was extremely rare to find both these changes in the brain of any animal other than human beings.
Finding the same physical changes in dolphins lends weight to a theory that developing dementia may relate to another feature that humans and dolphins have in common: unlike much of the animal kingdom, the two species can survive for decades after their prime age for reproduction.
Simon Lovestone,