This Seal Keeps A Beat Better Than Most Humans, Study Shows

SANTA CRUZ, CA — A seal at the University of California, Santa Cruz can keep a beat better than most humans, according to the institution.

Ronan the seal first made waves in 2013 when researchers at the Long Marine Laboratory found she could bob her head to a beat and even adjust to new music, according to the university. But some critics questioned whether her timing was as precise as a person's.

In a new study published May 1 in Scientific Reports, Ronan proved her synchronization rivals or exceeds that of most people, according to the university, which reported Ronan’s beat-keeping was more precise at every tempo tested, putting her in the 99th percentile of modeled human performance for reliability.

“She is incredibly precise, with variability of only about a tenth of an eyeblink from cycle to cycle,” said Peter Cook, a researcher with the university’s Institute of Marine Sciences and a neuroscientist at the New College of Florida, according to UC Santa Cruz.

To conduct the study, researchers compared Ronan’s head bobs to the arm movements of 10 undergraduate students at three different tempos, according to the university, which reported that at her most practiced tempo of 120 beats per minute, Ronan kept time within 15 milliseconds of the beat on average.

Ronan was adopted by the university’s pinniped lab in 2010 after she was repeatedly stranded due to malnutrition, according to UC Santa Cruz, which noted that her participation in the study was completely autonomous.