Risso's Dolphin

Risso's dolphins demonstrate extreme dietary specialization through cultural transmission: they eat almost exclusively squid, a niche requiring sophisticated echolocation and deep-diving techniques that must be learned from experienced pod members. Their heavily scarred bodies (from squid tentacle scratches and social interactions) serve as visible records of individual history, making each dolphin a readable archive of experience.

The squid specialization shows how cultural transmission can lock populations into narrow niches. Risso's dolphins don't genetically lack the ability to eat fish—they culturally lack the technique. Mother-to-calf transmission of squid hunting creates self-reinforcing specialization that becomes difficult to escape even if squid populations decline.

The business parallel is organizational capabilities that become constraints. Risso's dolphins are like companies with deep specialization that can't pivot to adjacent opportunities—the same cultural transmission that made them squid experts prevents them from becoming fish generalists. Their scarred bodies, readable histories of accumulated experience, are like companies whose past successes and failures are visible in their current structure. The scars tell the story; the story shapes future behavior.