Timeline for Best species to breed to intelligence
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 10, 2019 at 17:31 | comment | added | MongoTheGeek | Corvids have shown the ability to solve problems that leave chimpanzees frustrated to the point of throwing 💩 | |
| May 9, 2019 at 19:47 | comment | added | A. B. | @nigel222 Wouldn't matter about the selection pressures on terrestrial birds pushing them to evolve smaller brains, because that's wild birds - here we're asking about domesticated birds, where you control the selection pressures. I'd imagine the main one would be the amount of food needed to support such a brain, and you could supply food. Not being able to fly remains true, though. | |
| May 9, 2019 at 15:41 | comment | added | Gnudiff | @BЈовић oh dammit, I thought you just made a typo :) | |
| May 9, 2019 at 15:25 | comment | added | BЈовић | @Gnudiff This is a cow: britannica.com/animal/cow/media/141194/215021 | |
| May 9, 2019 at 14:56 | comment | added | Gnudiff | @BЈовић Really? youtube.com/watch?v=3dWw9GLcOeA | |
| May 9, 2019 at 11:12 | comment | added | nigel222 | Birds have much more efficient and faster brains than Mammals. However, they are in an evolutionary trap -- they can't evolve bigger brains without losing the ability to fly, but birds that become terrestrial are pushed by other pressures to evolve smaller brains because they don't need them to fly. There may also be architectural limitations - a bit like the obvious superiority of the ARM processor in a smartphone, until you try to scale it up to large-server size. I guess this immortal can find out, either way.... | |
| May 8, 2019 at 23:32 | comment | added | RonJohn | Don't forget bigger skulls for the bigger brains. | |
| May 8, 2019 at 17:27 | comment | added | T.E.D. | Good luck controlling their breeding. | |
| May 8, 2019 at 13:26 | comment | added | Jack Aidley | The Question talks about selective breeding not genetic engineering, but - were we to recast the question to be about genetic engineering - crows are a poor choice for genetic engineering because the best source of genes to boost intelligence is the surviving human and human genes function best in organisms more similar to humans. It's going to be easier to get those genes working in a rat or a racoon than in a crow. And that's leaving aside the immense difficulties of one person developing novel genetic engineering techniques that work in crows. | |
| May 8, 2019 at 10:27 | comment | added | nick012000 | Scientists studying animal intelligence usually use the ratio of brain size to body size, where crows come in just behind chimps, both of which are at about half the value that humans have. Additionally, birds have a more dense neural net than mammals do due to their optimisations for flight. | |
| May 8, 2019 at 10:02 | comment | added | BЈовић | Cows have bigger brains, but are not very intelligent. At least they do not show :) | |
| May 8, 2019 at 6:11 | history | answered | nick012000 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |