slim6y
Almost Legendary
Ok, here's a little something I conjured up in the last 10 minutes, it's all subjective and completely and 100% totally and utterly my opinion and I have not sat in lectures to understand this - nor have I read articles about. However, I do have some scientific background, just totally unrelated that's all.
Animals - instead of dividing them into back boned and non... Let's divide them by what they eat and size...
Which is more intelligent (opinion only - do not base this on anthropomorphism):
Horse or pig?
Dog or sheep?
Cow or cat?
Giraffe or lion?
Ok - I'll stop there... This is a broad(ish) spectrum... Personally, all the omnivores and predatory animals are far more intelligent...
Why?
Well grass doesn't require upper level thinking... In fact a species of invertebrate (a portia spider) could easily outwit most vegetarian vertebrates - and this was tested by hiding prey items in a 'maze' that the portia spiders had to seek and attack. In all cases the spider had to lose sight of their prey in order to continue to hunt and attack them.
Now - this purely suggests some cognitive thinking.
The more likely an animal was to become hunted, the more intelligent it became. The more intelligent the prey became, the more the hunter had to outsmart them.
Hence, their brains have developed in certain areas, for survival.
Of course these animals must have evolved in many other parts of their brains - and it is not fair to really compare humans to these vertebrates - we all have different goals in life.
But to think a snake lacks intelligence when you base it purely on 'instinct' is surely a mistake. The snake that waits to hunt its food, stealth and speed being two weapons in their arsenal along with heat pits and their vomeronasal organ - just because these adaptations are there, doesn't mean that they just do everything instinctively like breathing or blinking (in humans, snakes don't blink).
We breath - not only because we have to - but our central nervous system (CNS) does it for us - luckily. Some of us are pretty forgetful. But just because their CNS controls some of the snakes system - perhaps you should try stopping breathing... At this very point your brain takes over and forces you to breath - if you can't - panic sets in - and so on... And you can't tell me that a snake wouldn't panic if you were preventing it from breathing.
Instinctive - yes - but take away their very essence of life and you have the forms of 'depression' - and I am afraid some snakes are probably there right now... Not my two big carpets in their huge enclosure with climby things and three nest hides and open spaces that they cruise around all night in... Yes - depression exists in animals!
Animals - instead of dividing them into back boned and non... Let's divide them by what they eat and size...
Which is more intelligent (opinion only - do not base this on anthropomorphism):
Horse or pig?
Dog or sheep?
Cow or cat?
Giraffe or lion?
Ok - I'll stop there... This is a broad(ish) spectrum... Personally, all the omnivores and predatory animals are far more intelligent...
Why?
Well grass doesn't require upper level thinking... In fact a species of invertebrate (a portia spider) could easily outwit most vegetarian vertebrates - and this was tested by hiding prey items in a 'maze' that the portia spiders had to seek and attack. In all cases the spider had to lose sight of their prey in order to continue to hunt and attack them.
Now - this purely suggests some cognitive thinking.
The more likely an animal was to become hunted, the more intelligent it became. The more intelligent the prey became, the more the hunter had to outsmart them.
Hence, their brains have developed in certain areas, for survival.
Of course these animals must have evolved in many other parts of their brains - and it is not fair to really compare humans to these vertebrates - we all have different goals in life.
But to think a snake lacks intelligence when you base it purely on 'instinct' is surely a mistake. The snake that waits to hunt its food, stealth and speed being two weapons in their arsenal along with heat pits and their vomeronasal organ - just because these adaptations are there, doesn't mean that they just do everything instinctively like breathing or blinking (in humans, snakes don't blink).
We breath - not only because we have to - but our central nervous system (CNS) does it for us - luckily. Some of us are pretty forgetful. But just because their CNS controls some of the snakes system - perhaps you should try stopping breathing... At this very point your brain takes over and forces you to breath - if you can't - panic sets in - and so on... And you can't tell me that a snake wouldn't panic if you were preventing it from breathing.
Instinctive - yes - but take away their very essence of life and you have the forms of 'depression' - and I am afraid some snakes are probably there right now... Not my two big carpets in their huge enclosure with climby things and three nest hides and open spaces that they cruise around all night in... Yes - depression exists in animals!