Why aren't other animals becoming more intelligent?

Question

Humans evolved from chimps and chimps from other mammals and so on back to bacteria and single celled organisms. How come no other animals seem to be evolving to the point of being "intelligent" like us humans? Surely with us killing all the less intelligent animals over the years (road kill bunnies for example!), natural selection would favour animals that could outsmart us or be able to cross a road safely - eventually? Just a thought!

I'm meaning generally over the time humans have been around - obviously road kill bunnies are a recent invention!

Answer 1

If we assume evolution as by Darwin is basically right. Animals evolve to best survive in a certain ecological niche. In that respect intelligence was an adaptation to survive and prosper in response to certain environmental factors, and our species was the winner in that race to develop. In the same light why don’t all animals develop flight or gills etc. Other animals haven’t developed the same type of intelligence because they don’t need it. The Lingula sp. (a seashell) has existed in its current shape for well over 500 million years, as compared to our ½ to ¾ million years, it perfectly fills a certain niche and has no need to evolve further.
However your question hits upon a salient point. Where is the actual evidence for this species development? We should have examples of inter-species e.g. super smart bunnies still able to breed with normal bunnies to create cleverer off spring. This missing link worried Darwin for his entire life and eventually caused him to doubt his own theory.

Answer 2

If you need a funny answer take this: They are getting intelligent actually, only we are getting stupid.

If you need a logical explanation then try this:
Evolition is not directed towards a definite result for an achievement of a great aim. If this was not true the argument of the creationist must be true, which is "God created humans for a great purpose" such as being intelligent in that matter. Evolution works according to change for a certain effect, which is adaptation if you like.

You can take this analogy from human societies: Some societies have made great achievements in science and technology while others stayed relatively untouched (until now of course). The humans and other creatures are like that since humans took a different evolutionary path while chimpanzees stayed in the jungle an it took 5 million years and only 1% difference between their DNA. But since this is a nothing but an analogy, it's got its limits. Today we now that other people around the world have started to catch and certain degree top the achievements of western countries.

I do not know how many more million years would take for bunnies to outsmart humans, but I know that our great "intelligence" resulted with computers. According to a certain scientific estimations, they are already equalled their power to total human intelligence, and within 10 or so years computers will outsmart us. And you do not need "scientific" blah blah, look around you, around globe: How much computer operations are going on around economic,food production, market, travel, health, science, education, and entertainment are controlled by computer activities, and how much by "human intelligence". There is the evolution for you.

Answer 3

Evolution is not something you can track over the course of a few hundred or even a few thousand years. Since modern humans are relative newcomers to the stage, some other animals have not had the time to adapt to our behavior and develop traits that will help them to better survive our fast moving cars. If that should happen to be a constant over the next million years or so, then they may evolve into better car-evading animals. As for intelligence, there are animals that display a great deal of intelligence. Dolphins for example can communicate with a complex language that we still don't understand and yet they can learn and understand what we tell them even to the point of distinguishing between complex shapes and patterns.

Answer 4

1) The process is very slow. Maybe the average intelligence of humans today is not statically different form that of 1 million years ago. We can't mistake civilization and culture with intelligence.

2) Different species evolve taking advantages of different strategies. Evolving intelligence worked for us (but not intelligence alone) but there are other strategies that work too. Like simplicity (viruses are very "good" project). Strength, speed...

It should be noticed that the intelligence strategy has not passed the test of time (we are here only for 2 or 3 million years) and others have been here much longer.

Answer 5

Good question based on wrong assumptions.

Humans have developed one kind of intelligence, but does not lead to evolution, perhaps to involution. Its without doubt creative, but on a destructive way and on a inverse intelligence way.

Like recent studies, Raavens (crows) are able to play, create and use tool, learn and have some kind of communication.

Dense and high developed sense os comunties are associated to dolphins and whales. They live the life wihtout create tools or destroy the environment.

Languages and tools are used by other kind of primate in madagascar and africa.

Perhaps we are looking by the wrong point. Being smart is not create industries, clothes and shave theirselfs. Humans are not the smartest one, because they created terrible world wiht a lot of stress where largest part of other humans are felling pain, stress or lonyless.
Smart is interrupt natural selection process and create the possibility to the weakest procriate or perhaps is it ok create the possibility to damage entire wolrd without take in order long term consequences? Majority are doing nothing. Incentive mediocre people to still mecriocre are something smart?

Pehaps being intelligent is just live. Without boundries and without being concerned about your son's universty. hehehhehe

I do not not. Humans are the most aggressive specie. More dangerous and "posionous" than any other. We can put creative also.... but Intelligent..... I have seriously doubt about it.

Its better double your life expectative or just have one short and excelent life?

Answer 6

They are. We just have to accept that there is a huge vastness of difference between Homo Sapians and other forms of life. Consider something as common as the Raccoon. It has learned to move from a forest to inner cities. That is a recent evolutionary leap. The raccoon is now so common that some cities even trap them. Amazing... simply amazing. Only those animals that humans have direct contact with get less intelligent. Why? Well, we want animals that will happily march to their death thinking we are the greatest things around. Consider the dog... we love Fido... he loves us. He will gladly kill himself for his master. Find me a cat willing to do that. Now ask yourself, which animal is more popular as a pet. Think about it.

Answer 7

The same reason fish aren't comming out of the water and becomming amphibians. That niche is taken (by amphibians.) The natural pressure for developing an intellegent species is limited because we already are overrunning that niche. We destroyed all the competing intellegent primates by interbreeding with, or killing them. Just like life isn't originating under oceans anymore because all the local biology (microorganisms, etc) destroys the organic precursor molecules before they get a chance to originate anymore. The earth is overrun by life.

Answer 8

interpreting that made me cry some, and individuals ask your self why i'm a vegan. for this reason I went vegan, even as i presumed about the torutre that the animals go by skill of. purely becuase we cant comprehend what that is that they are saaying, does no longer recommend that they are lower than us. when we first all started venturing into different coultures and can want to no longer comprehend what they were saying, did we always imagine that they were lower than us? Yeah, we did take care of them in a unique way and yet they were people! I hate how animals are mistreated for the beef, egg and dairy indistry, it makes me cry to imagine of toddler cows ripped from there moms and compelled into small bins to develop into veal. It makes me unhappy, about toddler chicks who get killed because they dont lay eggs or there no longer sturdy for something else. the toddler pigs that are mutliated at beginning for being what they're. this is a sturdy senerio, to perchance wake human beings up faster or later, how i might want to easily cry, and that i do seeing the sadness in there eyes.

Answer 9

We took a long time to evolve.

Roads are a very recent addition to the world: 100 years or so. Evolution takes millions of years.

Answer 10

Who says they aren't? It's difficult to determine the intelligence of other animals. Some behaviorists will tell you that dogs are unintelligent but there is increasing proof that they are more intelligent than we ever gave them credit for.