![]() For one thing, it developed its own version of a nervous system, and many environmental factors that contributed to the intelligence of humans and many other mammals, such as close social groups, were absent for octopuses. That means that its intelligence, which can clearly be observed, evolved independently from the factors that caused our intelligence. In other words, the octopus is so far removed from us and other mammals that it might as well be the product of an entirely separate tree of life. So far back, that that common ancestor is some kind of tiny aquatic worm, and the fundamental split between our ancestral tree and that of octopuses is that some of those tiny worms acquired an anus. We would have to go all the way back through evolutionary history, more than 500 million years, to find a common ancestor. ![]() First, you have to realize that the octopus is incredibly far removed from us. ![]() The fact that the octopus shows any kind of intelligence has implications on a cosmic level. ![]() The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. ![]()
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