Why didn't most animals evolve to be as smart as humans?

Question

Considering humans are a relative newcomer on the world-scene and the benefit of intelligence is greater than any other evolved attribute as is clear by our dominance over every other species, you would think that many animals would have a humans level of intelligence or greater. Some animals are smarter than others but no animal comes close to humans. I wonder why?

It is upsetting to me that most people are simply regurgitating their basic understanding of evolution. I do not care what other attributes any animal has, higher intelligence will always give the animal an advantage in almost any environment to protect itself and provide itself with more food. I might buy some of these arguments for why some animals did not evolve high intelligence but I have heard nothing that explains why none of them have. Think people!

Answer 1

Brain tissue is hugely energetically expensive. You've heard that our brains use 20-25% of all the calories we consume, right?

So a more intelligent animal would have to have a bigger brain, and would then have to find that much more food DAILY or die. It is actually better to have a smaller brain in most cases.

Answer 2

Because the brain uses a lot of energy, if an animal lives in a simple environment where there is little need for "more" inteligence then evolution would not favor the "very smart" individuals because they have to find more food to feed the brain that does not help much in finding additional food or other survial skills.

Only with man has the situation developed where "more" inteligence is favored because we manipulate our environment through use of tools more than just simply using parts of our bodies.

A smarter fish would not have much of a need to act differently than the normal reactions fish of current inteligence. Same with many other animals. Their bodies limit how much any increased inteligence may be useful.

Dolphins and whales may be smart but based on their bodies they have little need to communicate much more than "lets go away there is a predator" or "come here there is food" a whale or dolphin that can think/comunicate much more than that would be wasteing energy that would otherwise help their survival, so a dolphin much smarter than "average" would not be favored in evolution.

Answer 3

This requires an understanding of why it is exactly that organisms develope the traits they do. You see, its more of a trial-and-error process than "evolve-by-demand". A trait that an organism possesses that distinguishes it from others of its species is called a mutation. A mutation occurs and if the organism survives to the point at which they can reproduce offspring, that mutation will most likely be passed along to those offspring. Human beings evolved from tree-dwelling species. And when the tree habitats in which they were suited began to give way to the savannas, these species lacked the speed aspect which the savanna usually demands. Human intellegence evolved as it was the trait that continued and developed as it kept the homonids alive.

Answer 4

I think the jury is still out on whether brains are the most useful attribute to survival of a species. Humans have not been around nearly as long as dinosaurs, or even cockroaches, and it is far from clear that our species will survive as long as many others have.

Answer 5

Most animals can fend for themselves with the tools they have. A lion only needs to be smart enought to be an effcient hunter. The claws and teeth do the rest. We humans are very weak. We have no good natural defences against other animals. Our main weapon is our brains. Our brais allows us to build tools to survive. Another difference is that we humans migrate. Animals for the most part tend to live in a specific area. We migrate and thus need to adapt to new climates. In order to do this we have to be a little bit smarter.

It is all amarter of survival. The prime directive of all animals is survive. In order for us to survive we developed our brains. We also, have disposable thumbs which alow us to do things that other animals can't. We are not that different than animals however. We build hoses, anmals build houses. We comunicate, animals comunicate to each other. We work together, animals work together. We all need to eat, we all need to reproduce and we all need to sleep.

Answer 6

You would be amazed a the intelligence of rats, pigs and chimps, not to speak of other animals. Of course, obviously none of them are anywhere as smart as humans. First I'd advice you to read the book "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. It should be understood that evolution is a slow process and cannot "look ahead"; it can only move in the direction that is locally optimal. For an ape in the jungle, it is likely that a small improvement in speed, ability to climb trees would save it more from predators than a minor improvement in intelligence. I guess the apes that were our ancestors lived in environments where a small improvemnent in intelligence was more beneficial to increasing chances of survival and reproduction.

Answer 7

You can't compare intelligence across species. What's smart for one species is dumb for another. For example, when a dog wants to alert it's pack mates to a possible threat, it uses vocalizations (barking, growling), but it would be stupid for a horse to alert other members of the herd to danger by using vocalizations, because it would allow the predator to pinpoint its prey. An animal's intelligence depends on its lifestyle. Humans are intelligent enough to manipulate and modify things in their environment, because that's what we have to do to survive. Think about it, we don't have sharp claws/teeth, we don't run very fast, we don't climb well, we don't see welll in the dark, we don't even have fur. Our "intelligence" is the only thing we have going for us.

Answer 8

They didn't need to in order to survive in their environment. All living things are perfectly evolved to the maximum level they currently need to be otherwise they would be extinct. Humans evolved intelligence in order to survive the same as other animals evolved teeth, claws, venom, camouflage, etc etc etc.

All living things are all equally "evolved" because all started at the same common ancestor and all have made it to the present day

Answer 9

Because man was created in part to be the caretaker of the earth and the animal`s.

Answer 10

plants and animals were placed in the world for the jurisdiction of humans.