Why did intelligence take so long to evolve?

Yitzhak Rabin

Over the course of paleo-history we have seen the same niches evolve over and over again... for example you have the ichtyosaurs & dolphins, who are remarkably similar, yet are completely unrelated:





Almost every time an ancient extinct creature is described it is described to "be like a modern day..."

It seems time and time again the same roles are adopted by completely unrelated creatures. Mammals like the elephant occupy the niche of gigantic plant-eater like the ancient giant vegatarian dinosaurs before.


So my question is, why has intelligence never evolved as a biological niche until the very recent past?

Kess73

Depends on what you are calling intelligence though.

Some extinct animals may have been far more intelligent that we suspect.

If we are judging intelligence by human standards, then maybe nature tried a number of times but we are the first species that it stuck with and evolved further in.

Some species of animal nowadays show remarkable intelligence. Some can communicate using a complex "language", some come up with amazing hunting techniques and then take it a step further by being able to change their techniques if their enviroment changes.

Some animals have shown that they are self aware and can recognise their own reflections and react to that reflection for grooming. The fact that one or two non mammals have been proven to have this trait is very interesting in my opinion, as it may suggest that more may share it or that many in the past had this ability.

As for similar body shapes and niches popping up millions of years apart, well a good design will continue to be used for as long as it is efficient so it is not too much of a surprise that animals who live in similar conditions would evolve similar shapes.

Rubecula

Wow you have asked one there haven't you?

I can not give you a definative answer, but I can tell you what I think if that is acceptable.

1) How do we know intelligence has not evolved before? What do you class as intelligence? After all it is believed T.Rex was comparatively of greater intelligence than it's prey. Or do you mean technology?

2) It is possible that greater intelligence was always on the verge of developing but for some reason or other it never made it to our levels. Possibly due to extinction events.

3) Intelligence like everything else will only develope as a survival method, and an increase in brain power may be very good for this, but it is also highly inefficient for developing as compared to other things. (Look how long a human parent has to care for it's young as compared to other creatures as a prime example)

Of course I don't think there was ever a Dino sapiens, but some of them towards the end were pretty clever. Without the extinction of the great reptiles it is possible thet there would have been by now a highly evoled Therapod descendant.

Adam Khor

Well, I can only tell you that we humans tend to grossly underestimate the intelligence of other species. Lately, a lot of studies have been conducted on the intelligence of many species, not only cetaceans, elephants and birds, but many others from rodents to reptiles to fish, and the result is always the same; they are much smarter than we thought. Same was probably true about extinct animals.

Perhaps your question was meant to be "why did human-like intelligence take so long to evolve?"

Yitzhak Rabin

Yeah I badly worded my question.

I guess I'm wondering why our evolutionary niche... basically not just adapting to our environment, but changing it to our advantage, and our use of technology.

Its clearly a very advantageous strategy. We've spread to every corner of the earth and made it our own, so I was wondering why over the billions of years of evolution, as far as we know, this strategy has only been adopted once.

Is it purely down to chance? Other species were just unlucky, and got hit with extinctions before they got a chance to evolve the "intelligence" strategy. Because I don't think time is the only factor. I mean we went from what is estimated to be fairly unintelligent tree dwelling apes to where we are now in a very short timespan.

Adam Khor

yekahS wrote: »

Yeah I badly worded my question.

I guess I'm wondering why our evolutionary niche... basically not just adapting to our environment, but changing it to our advantage, and our use of technology.

Well, we are not the only animals who change the environment to our advantage. Look at beavers, for example.

yekahS wrote: »

I mean we went from what is estimated to be fairly unintelligent tree dwelling apes to where we are now in a very short timespan.

I have some friends who would tell you there was alien intervention Personally, I think we simply underestimate ape intelligence. If we consider that modern day apes such as chimps, gorillas and orangutans can learn sign language and even invent their own composite words using said language, as well as inventing and using simple tools, I think it's not that surprising that this kind of intelligence evolved into our kind of intelligence under the right circumstances.
Australopithecines moved from a relatively safe environment, the forests, to the open savannahs which were plagued with formidable predators (and fierce competitors such as baboons). Such a huge pressure probably stimulated the development of a more human-like intelligence in these already smart apes. In other words, the apes who stayed in the jungle didn´t NEED to develop a more human-like intelligence, while for australopithecines it was the only way to survive in a hostile world...

Or that's what I think...

newmug

I think its because of language. Communications are key. If every mammal could talk for the last 100,000 years, we'd all be equally intelligent. Bear in mind that we're probably only one evolutionary step ahead of the rest of the animal kingdom in terms of intelligence, well at least with regard to mammals. I reckon it was probably just luck, some apes probably had to shout to each other from treetops. They developed their vocal abilities physically, words formed, then language, then they had the ability to organise, plan, spread ideas / info etc. This treetop idea might also explain why we always sleep raised off the ground!

Galvasean

yekahS wrote: »

I guess I'm wondering why our evolutionary niche... basically not just adapting to our environment, but changing it to our advantage, and our use of technology.

Its clearly a very advantageous strategy. We've spread to every corner of the earth and made it our own, so I was wondering why over the billions of years of evolution, as far as we know, this strategy has only been adopted once.

Look at termites. They build cities (for lack of a better term) and are found worldwide. of course their hive intelligence is very different to ours.

Adam Khor

Exactly! Termites are extremely intelligent, but in a completely similar way. The problem is, we are still equating intelligence with human-like intelligence.