How come only humans evolved to this level of intelligence and no other species came to even close ?

Question

I'm referring to all those millions years of life on earth that have passed ... and it just makes u wonder how come no other species evolved not even by far to our level of intelligence ... (why only us?)


PS : NO religious "GOD made us" stuff ... just a pure scientific answer ... thx

PS.2: We are the only life form with a conscious... and we are able develop rational thoughts .. that makes us "better" any other living being

PS. 3: we only evolved from 1 species of "monkeys" that is why there still are other "monkeys" around (other species)

PS. 4 : it makes NO difference to me or to my question if THERE was a more intelligent life form than we are now ... and the reason is that RIGHT now ... there are no other animals using yahoo! Answers ;)

Answer 1

I study Biology and a professor told us-during the class of Evolution-that human species came up (little by little, of course) when our ancestors started eating the marrow of the bones. This triggered the further development of our brain and we ended up as we are now.

Answer 2

First I would like to begin by saying that earth in my opinion is still a baby planet.... which indicates that all other species have a lot evolving to do and may in fact become even more sophisticated later on. People are a situation of circumstances....and have taken baby steps to get where we are at. Like all other things in existence everything needs a comparison to get a result in the mind of the question holder. Which reveals the idea of us compared to what we are able to understand at the moment. If the planet earth was destroyed right now.... and could start again with a fresh start.... I am 100% sure that life would take a new shape but all the creatures would still be different from one another based on the habitat and circumstances for it's survival. Which says that no matter how many times the earth is rebuilt or restarted somehow.... there will always be a species that may be a bit more sophisticated based on the circumstances. Coincidences and mechanisms compiled through million's of years will generate a large spectrum of possibilities. So on such a long journey... one should expect all the species to be different with different levels of intelligence. People are sophisticated in some ways..... but to an aliens perspective we may be flawed..... and turtles may be the intelligent form. It is all based on what you consider intelligent. People base intelligence on their own comprehention which is completely limited.....SO my answer to your question is that it is NOT ONLY US..... if the question is only based on human terms. Every generation of earths history will have a dominant species......based on the functioning and living condition of the specific location, weather,food sources, survival rate, preditors, motor skills, well funtioned limbs,defensive tactics,the list goes on.... all of these things contribute to what a creature becomes and is.... and were its existance will be headed. All cretures are given a different set of sircumstances and we prosper based on the predispostion..... and evolve from there. It just so happens we have come up as the dominant creatures.... but this does not mean we are the only dominant creatures or will ever be the most dominant creatures. Look at a set of numbers..... there will always be one number greater and one number less. That's a system that we created.... which says that you need a high and a low for a formation or a result. There will always be one greater.... no matter the number.... every equation is different therefore every result will appear different as well. sorry for the typos..... typing fast

Answer 3

Another species *did* come close. We are Homo sapiens, but Homo neanderthalensis is a separate species (not an ancestor) that lived at the same time as Homo sapiens, but went extinct only about 24,000 years ago (!) ... which was before Yahoo Answers. There is some evidence that we had some hand in the extinction of the last of the neanderthals ... so it is possible that a human-like intelligence cannot tolerate a second such intelligence.

I'm quite sure that this urge to annihilate all rival species is the root of our warlike instincts to kill each other. With no other species to kill off, we turn to killing members of our own species who look or act differently than we do. In other words, our instinct is to 'dehumanize' (treat as another species) others who are different.

Answer 4

Evolving higher intelligence comes with costs as well as benefits. First, supporting a central nervous system that allows for higher intelligence requires a lot of protein and calories. Species that do not eat a lot of protein will not have the metabolic resources to invest in higher intelligence. So we are limited then to carnivores and some omnivores. And among carnivores and omnivores there are many competing factors for what is the best investment of caloric intake. For example, among 334 species of bats studied, there is a strong negative correlation between brain size and testes size. In other words some bat species invest their caloric intake in big balls and small brains while other species have invested in bigger brains and smaller balls, but you can't have both as a bat is only likely to consume so many calories.

Besides limitations on caloric intake and investment in neurological functioning there are other issues, for example in humans, the dangers of childbirth mortality with large brained infants. And the dangers of having an infant helpless during a long maturation period necessary for learning. This would not be an adaptive strategy if your environment is filled with dangerous predators.

Despite all the drawbacks and dangers of evolving increased intelligence, humans have done so. A more appropriate question may be, despite all of the disadvantages, especially in the early eras of hominids, when calorie acquisition would have been harder, childbirth more dangerous and predators more of a problem, why did we nevertheless evolve such big brains?

Answer 5

How do you know that there hasn't been ? Earth has had a few major Extinction events. I doubt if even Humans could survive one if it happened today


251 million years ago — at the Permian-Triassic transition Earth's largest extinction (the P/Tr or Permian-Triassic extinction event) killed 53% of marine families, 84% of marine genera, about 96% of all marine species and an estimated 70% of land species (including plants, insects, and vertebrate animals). The "Great Dying" had enormous evolutionary significance: on land it ended the dominance of the mammal-like reptiles and created the opportunity for archosaurs and then dinosaurs to become the dominant land vertebrates; in the seas the percentage of animals that were sessile dropped from 67% to 50%.
The whole of the late Permian was a difficult time for at least marine life - even before the "Great Dying", the diagram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Extinction_Intensity.png

shows a late-Permian level of extinction large enough to qualify for inclusion in the "Big Five".

Answer 6

Actually we co-exist with people with different mutations on a daily basis (such as eye color). Evolution is still going on. Your neighbor may have the gene that is resistant to AIDS. For all we know the neanderthals might be our next door neighbor. Evolution dictates "survival of the fittest" however "the fittest" is different based on the environment. Whales came from mammals that came out of the sea spent some time on earth (where we stayed) and then went back to the sea to continue to evolve. So I can't say that we are the most evolved species. However our ancestors did start using tools. This ability (which our monkey friends share) allows us to manipulate our environment to suit us. Since Apes have sutiable environments for their survivial they are still here. There is no reason (except us) to become extinct. So we co-exist with them also. Most species eat enough to survive. Humans use tools to create extra food. Extra food allows people who would be primarily farmers or hunters to concentrate their efforts on other things such as a Dr or religious icon. This all leads to civilization. I wouldn't say that our level of intelligence exceeds that of any other species but I would say that our level of technology does.

Answer 7

hm.. interesting question- it could have to do with Darwin's theory of natural selection, you know, whatever species adapts to its environment best will coninue to evolve. Or maybe the aliens came down and fooled around with our genetics, or (I know, no God, stuff, but this IS scientific) our planet and universe does suggest 'intellegent design.' A design by a 'designer' that is still maintained today!

If you want to know more about life, and science and evolution, here are some cool free online videos!

http://www.allaboutscience.org/intelligent-design-video.htm

Just search around the site, there are lot of videos!

Good Luck! :)

Answer 8

First off, please excuse me for being a Biology ignorant. I seem to remember reading somewhere that men are so intelligent today because of they high protein consumption, in form of meat, which caused the brain to grow during evolution, making our species more intelligent than the others. If this is true, why don't we have superintelligent lions and other carnivore animals walking on twos and building cities and electing the mayor in Lionland, PA? They eat way more meat than we do.

I was having a little discussion recently, I felt that humans are more important than animals. I absolutely love animals of all kind and understand how many of them are in danger of extinction, but I can’t help but feel that helping another human is more important (a higher good, if you will) than helping an animal. The question becomes: is a human life more important than an “animal” one?

While humans are filed in kingdom Animalia, there is obviously a large difference between us and other “animals” because we built the classification system. A human life involves a capable physical body and an even more powerful brain. A human life can think, build and grow in a much more profound way than an “animal”.

On the other hand, some animals perform some actions equally well and even better than humans. Many animals are faster and stronger than humans although I don’t believe there are any that can even come near the intellectual capacity of humans.

Returning to the question of charity, I believe that saving a human life is more important than an animal because that human life saved is capable of much more. It could, in theory, lead to a chain of charitable actions that an animal would not be capable of creating.

I have nothing against organizations that help endangered animals or animals themselves, but I feel that a human life is simply worth more.

It’s typical human ignorance to think that we’re “more evolved.” Bacteria have been around just as long as we have; we’ve simply evolved in a different way.


READ READ READ I THINK THIS PART WILL ANWSER
we did not evolve from monkeys by the way we evoled from creatures kinda like monky's tho. infact others specas like us were alive long ago. Humans, Niagrathaghs, and drawf's. drawf's were veru intelgignt but they died out because they lacked fisacal stregnth. Niagarthaghs were very Strong and tall but lacked inteligents to find food during winter. Animal's have evolved as much as us but we have just evoled in beter way's THE #1 THING THAT WE HAVE THAT MAKES US SO INTEGLENT IN MY OPTION IS THE ABITLTY TO COMMUUNACATE WITH EACH OTHER.

so in conclison it's not that animals have not evoled as much as us. It is just that we have evoled in a differnt way


BY THE WAY DONT COUNT ME OUT BECAUSE I CANT SPELL IM ONLY12

Answer 9

Well I read once that the turning point in our evolution could be that we became omnivores that the meat that we started eating helped us evolve, and no other animal has done this. However people have just recently found the Baboon doing this now, so they could be a few million years behind us but on the way through changing their diet to meat and becoming a more evolved species.

Also go and watch space Odyssey it has an interesting theory that you may like and is one of the all time classics of film.

Answer 10

The reason is simple, we evaluate 'intelligence' on the basis of human ability.
We judge the intelligence of other species by how closely they can emulate our abilities.
Human beings are not more intelligent than other species, we are just very good at being human beings.
Dolphins are too intelligent to have a need to invent toys, or under water televisions.
Lions are equipped to obtain all they need without guns.
Ants are better than any other animal at being ants.

Human beings are ill equipped to succeed without our specific thinking methods, but it may turn out we were not intelligent enough to avoid our total annihilation, as already we have spent too much time, learning how to kill each other.

Answer 11

According to scientists, others did reach close. Have yu ever heard of the Neanderthal man discovered in Europe? Neanderthals weren't the anscestors of homo sapiens (us). In fact they were another branch of highly evolved primates (developing around the same time as homo sapiens all those millions of years ago) that were very similar. But that branch became extinct.

The neanderthals were not the only branch of "almost humans" either. There were other branches that evolved even before like "homo erectus" (who was one of our anscesters), "homo habilis" and "homo ergaster" (Who were not our anscestors). Homo habilis and homo ergaster were other branches of hominids that are not dierectly connected to our family tree and who also became extinct a long time ago.

The point is, were were not the only species to come close. It's just that we were the only one that survived. Don't forget the world is billions of years in the making, and we've only been counting for about 2000 to 3000 years now. Lots of species had time to develop and become extinct before homo sapiens even laid a foot on the earth.

Why we survived? No one knows... Perhaps we were better adapted, perhaps the others came to an unfortunate end early in their existence. The evolution leading to us was by no means a straight line as the typical picture we see all the time of the ape at one end, the human at the other end and the various stages in between. There were a lot of branch offs and dead ends along the way.

You can search for more info online for more branches and possibilities. Use the names I gave you (h. erectus, h. habilis, h. ergaster etc) as keywords and see what you find.