Intelligence in Earth’s nonhuman life

2013

• “Considering the Humanity of Nonhumans” by James Gorman (New York Times; 2013.12.10) – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/science/considering-the-humanity-of-nonhumans.html
  • The issues of self-awareness and of awareness of past and future strike to the heart of a common-sense view of what personhood might be. Chimps, elephants and some cetaceans have shown that they can recognize themselves in a mirror.
• “Unlikely Partners, Freeing Chimps From the Lab” by James Gorman (New York Times; 2013.07.08) – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/science/unlikely-partners-freeing-chimps-from-the-lab.html?pagewanted=all

2012

• “Complex thinking goes beyond primates: Dolphins understand zero, elephants rescue each other” by Seth Borenstein (Winnipeg Free Press; 2012.06.24) – http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/sci_tech/complex-thinking-goes-beyond-primates-dolphins-understand-zero-elephants-rescue-each-other-160191285.html
  • Dolphins understand concept of “zero”. Can do everything that chimpanzees and bonobos can do. Likely have personalities.
  • Animal intelligence “is not a linear thing,” said Duke University researcher Brian Hare, who studies bonobos, which are one of man’s closest relatives, and dogs, which are not. “Think of it like a toolbox,” he said. “Some species have an amazing hammer. Some species have an amazing screwdriver.”
  • Elephants work cooperatively, solving problems faster than chimps.
• “Line blurs between man, animal: Monkeys do math, baboons seem to read, orangutans plan ahead” by Seth Borenstein (Winnipeg Free Press; 2012.06.24) – http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/sci_tech/line-blurs-between-man-animal-monkeys-do-math-baboons-seem-to-read-orangutans-plan-ahead-160191235.html
  • Some of the shifts in scientific understanding of animals are leading to ethical debates. When Emory University researcher Lori Marino in 2001 co-wrote a groundbreaking study on dolphins recognizing themselves in mirrors, proving they have a sense of self similar to humans, she had a revelation. “The more you learn about them, the more you realize that they do have the capacity and characteristics that we think of as a person,” Marino said. “I think it’s impossible to ignore the ethical implications of these kinds of findings.”

2011

• “The concept of “ME”” by Fakir Mohan Sahoo (2011.05.27) – http://atlasofmind.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/the-concept-of-%E2%80%9Cme%E2%80%9D/

2010

• “Improving the mirror test” by Vincent Tijms (The Matter of Mind blog; 2010.11.19) – http://tijmz.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/improving-the-mirror-test/

2009

• “Pigs Can Learn How To Use Mirrors” – http://camelswithhammers.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/pigs-can-learn-how-to-use-mirrors/
  In just five hours, an average farm pig can learn how to interpret an image in the mirror and use it to find hidden food.

General

• “Animal Sentience” (web site) – http://www.livesofanimals.org/
• The Nonhuman Rights Project – http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/
• Aeon Magazine articles on animal sentience:
  • “I, cockroach” by Brandon Keim (Aeon Magazine) – http://www.aeonmagazine.com/nature-and-cosmos/do-cockroaches-have-a-form-of-consciousness/
    • Do insects feel pain? Are they conscious? A science kit for at-home cyborg cockroaches provokes the hard questions
  • “Kindred spirits” by Barbara J King (Aeon Magazine) – http://www.aeonmagazine.com/nature-and-cosmos/how-do-animals-form-families/
    • Animals have friends, enemies, allies and life-long companions. Human relationships aren’t so unique after all
    • While scientists and animal caretakers have only just begun to record qualitative data about animals’ responses to death, and to address larger questions that bear on mutuality of being, we have strong clues that suggest the fully interdependent nature of animals’ non-kin relationships. Mutuality of being need not be expressed only through language. Animals, too, can feel their lives deeply, and they might even feel the co-presence of others — whether related by blood or not — in those lives.
  • “Being a sandpiper” by Brandon Keim – http://www.aeonmagazine.com/nature-and-cosmos/the-science-of-animal-consciousness/
    • Animals have thoughts, feelings and personality. Why have we taken so long to catch up with animal consciousness?
• “What Is it Like to Be a Bat?” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_it_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F
  • is an influential paper by the American philosopher, Thomas Nagel, first published in The Philosophical Review in October 1974, and later in Nagel’s Mortal Questions (1979). In it, Nagel argues that materialist theories of mind omit the essential component of consciousness, namely that there is something that it feels like to be a particular conscious thing.[1] An organism has conscious mental states, he argues, “if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism—something it is like for the organism.”
  • “Is there anything it is like to be a bat?” by Hacker (P.M.S ???)- http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/scr/hacker/docs/To%20be%20a%20bat.pdf
  • “What is it like to be a bat?” by Thomas Nagel – http://organizations.utep.edu/portals/1475/nagel_bat.pdf
  • “WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A HUMAN (INSTEAD OF A BAT)?” – http://faculty.washington.edu/bonjour/Unpublished%20articles/MARTIAN.html

Mammals: Primates

• Primate cognition (Wikipedia) –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primate_cognition
• “Chimps may have the ability to understand language too – humans just get more practice, say researchers” by Rob Waugh (Mail Online; 2011.11.01) – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2056114/Chimps-ability-understand-language–humans-just-practice-say-researchers.html
• “Orangutan Caught Red-Handed Using Technology, Fishing with a Spear” by Michael Graham (Tree Hugger; 2008.04.28) – http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/orangutan-fishing-with-spear.php
• “Rhesus Monkeys Appear to Have a Form of Self-Awareness Not Previously Attributed to Them, Research Suggests” (ScienceDaily; 2011.07.06) – http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110705183630.htm
• Clever Monkeys (PBS) – http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/clever-monkeys/introduction/3946/
  Just how smart are monkeys? Their innate curiosity leads them to try new things, but it’s their culture — the passing of information from one generation to the next — that teaches them much of what they know. Their young learn by reaching out with their hands to experience the world around them, grasping new objects, slowly piecing together an understanding of their society. They learn from their families how to find food, communicate, recognize kin, even use tools, medicine, and language. It is these familiar actions that make monkeys so fascinating to humans. We can see ourselves in their faces, our nature in their actions.
  NATURE travels around the world to visit some of these fascinating primates. From tiny pygmy marmoset in South America to aggressive baboons of Africa and compassionate toque macaques in Sri Lanka, Clever Monkeys challenges many ideas about what is purely “human.”
• Ape ‘Utterances” Have Been Reexamined (Babel’s Dawn blog; 2011.01.16) – http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2011/01/ape-utterances-have-been-reexamined.html
• “For the First Time, Monkeys Recognize Themselves in the Mirror, Indicating Self-Awareness” (ScienceDaily; 2010.09.30) – http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100929171739.htm
  … Scientists who have used the mark test to explore self-awareness have found the quality in one species of bird, in one individual elephant, and in dolphins and orangutans. And so instead of asking how self-awareness evolved only among primates, they face the larger question of how it evolved multiple times in distantly related species. …
• “Humans And Monkeys Share Machiavellian Intelligence” (Science Daily; 2007.20.07) – http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024144314.htm>
  When it comes to their social behavior, people sometimes act like monkeys, or more specifically, like rhesus macaques, a type of monkey that shares with humans strong tendencies for nepotism and political maneuvering, according to research by Dario Maestripieri, an expert on primate behavior and an Associate Professor in Comparative Human Development and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago.
• “Monkeys show Machiavellian intelligence” (UPI; 2007.10.25) – http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2007/10/25/Monkeys-show-Machiavellian-intelligence/UPI-47291193336900/
• Capuchin monkey intelligence (WikiPedia) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capuchin_monkey#Intelligence
• “Bucknell primate laboratory tests monkeys’ intelligence” (2003.04.13) – http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20030412primate5.asp
• “Putting monkey intelligence to the test” (Japan Probe; ) – http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/03/16/putting-monkey-intelligence-to-the-test/
• “Monkey see, monkey infer” by William J. Cromie (Harvard News Office; 2007) – http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/05.04/09-infer.html: Monkeys draw novel conclusions, researchers say
• “Monkey IQ and the evolution of intelligence” (The Rational Response Squad forums) – http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/17913
• “Chimpanzees’ 66 gestures revealed” by Victoria Gill (BBC News; 2011.05.05) – http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9475000/9475408.stm
• “Chatting chimps in Uganda, Africa are ‘socially aware'” by Matt Walker (BBC News; 2010.07.09) – http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8803000/8803403.stm
• “Rocker Peter Gabriel recalls jamming with bonobos now living in Des Moines, Iowa” (DesMoinesRegister; 2011.05.13) – http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/05/13/rocker-peter-gabriel-recalls-jamming-with-bonobos-now-living-in-des-moines-iowa/
• Peter Gabriel jams with Ape Trust’s Bonobos (Monkeys In The News blog; 2005.04.26) – http://www.monkeyday.org/2005/04/peter-gabriel-jams-with-ape-trusts.html
• “Peter Gabriel Teaching Monkeys To Play Keyboards” by Corey Moss (MTV; 2001.07.12) – http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1445116/peter-gabriel-ape-music-teacher.jhtml – Renaissance rocker working with 12 bonobo apes at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
• Great Ape Trust – http://www.greatapetrust.org/
  • “Peter Gabriel on Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh” (Great Ape Trust Blog; 2011.05.17) – http://www.greatapetrust.org/about-the-trust/great-ape-trust-blog/peter-gabriel-on-dr-sue-savage-rumbaugh

Mammals: Elephants

• Elephant intelligence (WikiPedia) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_intelligence

Mammals: Cetaceans (dolphins, whales, …)

• “Talk with a dolphin via underwater translation machine” by MacGregor Campbell (New Scientist – issue 2811; 2011.05.09) – http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028115.400-talk-with-a-dolphin-via-underwater-translation-machine.html
  • “The implications of interspecies communication” by MacGregor Campbell (New Scientist – issue 2811; 2011.05.09) – http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028113.000-the-implications-of-interspecies-communication.html
• “Intelligence of Dolphins: Ethical and Policy Implications” – http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2010/webprogram/Session1526.html
  Charter: The dolphin brain has a large cerebral cortex and a substantial amount of associational neocortex. Most anatomical ratios that assess cognitive capacity place it second only to the human brain. More important, recent research in marine science has revealed that dolphins have a remarkable degree of cognitive and affective sophistication. For example, dolphins can recognize their image in a mirror as a reflection of themselves — a finding that indicates self-awareness similar to that seen in higher primates and elephants. These and other studies, which have found that dolphins are also capable of advanced cognitive abilities such as problem-solving, artificial language comprehension, and complex social behavior, indicate that dolphins are far more intellectually and emotionally sophisticated than previously thought. Considerable research indicates that they are significantly different from fish and other marine species, and this research has significance for commercial policy and practice. This symposium will present the scientific findings and explore their ethical and policy implications.
  • Lori Marino (Emory University): Anatomical Basis of Dolphin Intelligence – http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2010/webprogram/Paper1487.html
    Many modern dolphin brains are significantly larger than our own and second in mass to the human brain when corrected for body size. Despite evolving along a different neuroanatomical trajectory than human brains, cetacean brains exhibit several features that are correlated with complex intelligence, including a large expanse of neocortical volume that is more convoluted than our own, extensive insular and cingulate regions, and highly differentiated cellular regions.
    These characteristics of dolphin brains are consistent with current behavioral evidence. In this presentation I will discuss the neuroanatomical basis of complex intelligence in dolphins, how the neuroanatomy provides evidence for psychological continuity between humans and dolphins, and the profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin interactions. Specifically, I will focus on the growing worldwide industry of capturing and confining dolphins for amusement in marine park shows, “swim-with-dolphin” and “dolphin-assisted therapy” facilities. Our current knowledge of dolphin brain complexity and intelligence suggests that these practices are potentially psychologically harmful to dolphins and present a misinformed picture of their natural intellectual capacities.
  • Diana Reiss (Hunter College of the City University of New York): Self-Awareness and Dolphins – http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2010/webprogram/Paper1488.html
    Bottlenose dolphins are highly social mammals with large and complex brains. Studies conducted in the field and aquaria have provided increasing evidence for the dolphin’s cognitive-social prowess, revealing that dolphins are cultural animals – much of their behavior is learned and passed down through generations.
    They have demonstrated the capacity for mirror-self recognition (MSR), a hallmark of a level of self-awareness, previously thought to be restricted to humans but also shared by the great apes, elephants and magpies. Despite profound differences in neuroanatomical characteristics and evolutionary histories dolphins, primates (human and great apes), and elephants show striking parallels in both the progression of behavioral stages and actual responses to a mirror providing compelling evidence for convergent cognitive evolution. MSR may index an increased self-other distinction that also underlies the social complexity and altruistic tendencies shared among these species.
    Can our scientific knowledge be used to influence international policy decisions and ethical considerations of the treatment of dolphins? Do scientific facts translate and transcend cultural boundaries? In the dolphin drive hunts in Japan, there are no restrictions on capture or killing methods of the highly sentient dolphin and other small whales. The killing methods fail to meet even the most minimal requirements used in U.S. laboratories and slaughterhouses. Scientists are making the argument on the basis of the scientific evidence that the drive hunts are unjustifiable and indefensible in that they inflict pain and suffering on animals that are intelligent, sentient, socially complex and have capacity to experience pain and suffering.
  • Thomas I. White (Loyola Marymount University): Ethical Implications of Dolphin Intelligence: Dolphins as Nonhuman Persons – http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2010/webprogram/Paper1489.html
    The scientific research on dolphin intelligence suggests that dolphins are “nonhuman persons.” (Like humans, dolphins appear to be self-conscious,
    unique individuals [with distinctive personalities, memories and a sense of self] who are vulnerable to a wide range of physical and emotional pain and harm, and who have the power to reflect upon and choose their actions.) At the same time, fundamental differences between humans and dolphins have also surfaced. (The dolphin brain has an older architecture than the human brain, and dolphin and human brains have features not found in the other. Dolphins possess a sense that humans lack [echolocation]. Humans and dolphins have profoundly different evolutionary histories.) This juxtaposition of important similarities and differences has significant ethical implications.
    The similarities suggest that dolphins qualify for moral standing as individuals-and, therefore, are entitled to treatment of a particular sort. The differences, however, suggest that species-specific standards may apply when it comes to determining something as basic as “harm.” The policy implications are considerable. For example, certain human fishing practices are indefensible and would need to change. (Over 300,000 cetaceans are thought to die annually around the world as a result of fisheries by-catch. Thousands more typically die in the annual Japanese drive hunts.) Similarly, changes would need to be made regarding the hundreds of captive dolphins currently used in entertainment facilities. The economic, political and diplomatic challenges in ending ethically problematic practices, however, are daunting and multi-faceted. Unfortunately, humans have a poor track record for recognizing the rights and interests even of members of our own species once they’ve been dubbed “inferior.” Meaningful change in human/dolphin interaction, then, is likely to unfold slowly. Yet developing an interspecies ethic could mark a significant turning point in the relationship between humans and other intelligent beings on the planet.
• “Non-human Persons” by petchary (Petchary blog) – http://petchary.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/non-human-persons/ – dog knows more worlds (over 1000) that a two-years old.

Mammals: Carnivora (cats, dogs, …)

• “What Are Cats Thinking?” by David Grimm (Slate; 2014.04.21) – http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/04/cat_intelligence_and_cognition_are_cats_smarter_than_dogs.html
  • Inside the mind of the world’s most uncooperative research subject.
• “Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl!” by Nicholas Wade (The New York times; 2011.01.17) – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/science/18dog.html

Aves (Birds)

• Avian Intelligence (Wikipedia) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_intelligence
• “Empathic chickens and cooperative elephants: Emotional intelligence expands its range again” by Marc Bekoff (Psychology Today; 2011.03.09)- http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201103/empathic-chickens-and-cooperative-elephants-emotional-intelligence-expan – Chickens feel one another’s pain and elephants know when they need help
• “Songbirds Use Grammar in Tweets” by Clare Pain (Discovery News, from ABC Science Online; 2011.06.27) – http://news.discovery.com/animals/finches-songs-grammar-110627.html – It turns out humans aren’t so unique in being able to order sound logically.

  • Playing jumbled bird songs back to finches showed that the order of syllables matters to the birds.
  • Humans aren’t the only ones who structure their sounds in grammatical ways, the research suggests.

• Murmurations by flocks of starlings and other small birds: Likely not an example of intelligence, but it is a good example of complexity of collective behavior (which is half-way towards the intelligence):
  • “‘Murmuration’ shows a fascinating and rare phenomena in nature” by William Goodman (CBS News; 2011.11.03) – http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-57318049-10391705/murmuration-shows-a-fascinating-and-rare-phenomena-in-nature/
  • Vimeo page with orginal video recording – http://vimeo.com/31158841
  • I have seen this many times, but never on scale like this, it were always small clouds/flocks of few tens of small birds. Typically I see them dancing around (evading) some predator bird that tries to catch one of them

Aves (Birds): Corvids [Corvidae]

• Corvidae (WikiPedia) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvidae
• “Rook reveal remarkable tool use” – http://vodpod.com/watch/1672586-rook-reveal-remarkable-tool-use
• “Bird Tool Use Evolved for Better Grub, Literally” by Jennifer Viegas (Dicsovery News; 2010.09.16) – http://news.discovery.com/animals/bird-tool-use-evolved-for-better-grub-literally.html
  • Problem solving by a clever crow (YouTube) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZSk7oCNaHg
• “Ravens Reconcile after Aggressive Conflicts with Valuable Partners” by Orlaith N. Fraser, Thomas Bugnyar (PLoS; 2011.03.25) – http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0018118
  Reconciliation, a post-conflict affiliative interaction between former opponents, is an important mechanism for reducing the costs of aggressive conflict in primates and some other mammals as it may repair the opponents’ relationship and reduce post-conflict distress. Opponents who share a valuable relationship are expected to be more likely to reconcile as for such partners the benefits of relationship repair should outweigh the risk of renewed aggression. In birds, however, post-conflict behavior has thus far been marked by an apparent absence of reconciliation, suggested to result either from differing avian and mammalian strategies or because birds may not share valuable relationships with partners with whom they engage in aggressive conflict. Here, we demonstrate the occurrence of reconciliation in a group of captive subadult ravens (Corvus corax) and show that it is more likely to occur after conflicts between partners who share a valuable relationship. Furthermore, former opponents were less likely to engage in renewed aggression following reconciliation, suggesting that reconciliation repairs damage caused to their relationship by the preceding conflict. Our findings suggest not only that primate-like valuable relationships exist outside the pair bond in birds, but that such partners may employ the same mechanisms in birds as in primates to ensure that the benefits afforded by their relationships are maintained even when conflicts of interest escalate into aggression. These results provide further support for a convergent evolution of social strategies in avian and mammalian species.
• “Angry Birds: Crows Never Forget Your Face” by Jennifer Viegas (Discovery News; 2011.06.28) – http://news.discovery.com/animals/angry-crows-memory-life-threatening-behavior-110628.html

  • Mess with a crow, and it will remember your face for over five years, research shows.
  • Crows remember the faces of “dangerous humans,” with the memories likely lasting for a bird’s lifetime.
  • Crows may scold people who threaten them, bringing in relatives and even strangers to mob the person.
  • The crows within mobs then indirectly learn about the person, so they too associate that individual’s face with danger and react accordingly.
  • “Others have shown that some crows make and use tools, forecast future events, understand what other animals know, and — in our case — learn from individual experience as well as by observing parents and peers,” Marzluff explained. “These are all advanced cognitive tasks shown by only a few animals.”
  • He suspects other social, long-lived species that live closely with humans might also share information in a similar manner. Possibilities include animals such as coyotes, raccoons, gulls, pigeons and rats. All could practice a combination of social and trial and error learning. The latter provides the most accurate information, but it is clearly riskier than indirect social learning.

• “Crows are Feathered Engineers” by Gene Charleton (Discovery News; 2010.06.10) – http://news.discovery.com/tech/feathered-engineers.html – Crows living in the jungles of New Caledonia use tools to solve problems.
• “Feathered engineers” by Gene (Texas AM Engineering; 2010.06.02) – http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/2010/feathered-engineers/
• “Mirrors and Magpies” by fatfinch (The Fat Finch Bird Brain Blog; ) – http://fatfinch.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/mirrors-and-magpies/
• “Self-Recognition in the Pica Pica (Magpie)?” (2008.08.19) – http://cognitivetrammeling.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/self-recognition-in-the-pica-pica/

Aves (Birds): Parrots

• Parrot intelligence – http://www.budgie-parakeets.com/parrotintelligence.html
• “Parrot Proves It’s No Birdbrain” by Rachel Metz (Wired; (2005.07.20) – http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/07/68226%3FcurrentPage%3Dall

Fish

• “Video Shows Fish Using Tools” by Jennifer Viegas (Discovery News; 2011.09.29) – http://news.discovery.com/animals/fish-uses-tool-110929.html
  “What the movie shows is very interesting,” Bernardi was quoted as saying in a press release. “The animal excavates sand to get the shell out, then swims for a long time to find an appropriate area where it can crack the shell. It requires a lot of forward thinking, because there are a number of steps involved. For a fish, it’s a pretty big deal.”
  
  • Choerodon Tools (YouTube) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_MYQy_eeTQ
  • The use of tools by wrasses Labridae (YouTube) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awHj5EiiXIg
• “First Fish Photographed Using Tool To Help It Eat” by Matthew McDermott (TreeHugger; 2011.07.19) – http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/first-fish-photographed-using-tool-help-it-eat.php

Cephalopod: Squids, etc

• Cephalopod intelligence (WikiPedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence
• This is probably a stretch (in domain of science-fiction), but it sounds like something that just could be the case. Is decoration of your nesting ground a sign of intelligence? Also, assuming that some ancient cephalopod indeed had this intelligence, then the questions is what happened to that intelligence during the following 50 millions of years? It looks like it had gone nowhere to be seen these days.
  • “The Revenge of the Imaginary Kraken” by Brian Switek (Wired; 2011.10.12) – http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/the-revenge-of-the-imaginary-kraken/
  • “Gigantic KRAKEN fingered in prehistoric murder mystery – Prof reckons monster was also a Triassic Van Gogh” by Anna Leach (The Register; 2011.10.12) – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/12/kraken_killer/
    “The proposed Triassic kraken, which could have been the most intelligent invertebrate ever, arranged the vertebral discs in biserial patterns, with individual pieces nesting in a fitted fashion as if they were part of a puzzle. The arranged vertebrae resemble the pattern of sucker discs on a cephalopod tentacle, with each amphicoelous vertebra strongly resembling a coleoid sucker. Thus the tessellated vertebral disc pavement may represent the earliest known self‑portrait.”
  • “Ancient Krakens Making Self-Portraits?” (SlashDot; 2011.10.11) – http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/10/11/134240/ancient-krakens-making-self-portraits
    First time accepted submitter Sanoj writes “Strange patterns of ichthyosaur bones have been found on an ancient deep-water seabed. One paleontologist has put forward the theory that these could have been the work of giant cephalopods who were eating the swimming dinosaurs and then arranging the vertebrae to resemble their own tentacles [http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/58953-triassic-kraken-may-have-created-self-portrait]. Sound far-fetched? Apparently, the modern octopus also does this.”
  • “The Giant, Prehistoric Squid That Ate Common Sense” by Brian Switek (Wired; 2011.10.10) – http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/the-giant-prehistoric-squid-that-ate-common-sense/
  • “Smokin’ Kraken?” by Sarah Simpson(Discovery News; 2011.10.100) – http://news.discovery.com/earth/smokin-kraken-111011.html
  • “Triassic ‘Kraken’ may have created self-portrait” by Kate Taylor (TG Daily; 2011.10.10) – http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/58953-triassic-kraken-may-have-created-self-portrait
    
  • “TRIASSIC KRAKEN: THE BERLIN ICHTHYOSAUR DEATH ASSEMBLAGE INTERPRETED AS A GIANT CEPHALOPOD MIDDEN” by Mark A.S. MCMENAMIN and Dianna L. SCHULTE MCMENAMIN (2011 GSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis [9–12 October 2011]; Paper No. 120-3) – http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2011AM/finalprogram/abstract_197227.htm
    The Luning Formation at Berlin‑Ichthyosaur State Park, Nevada, hosts a puzzling assemblage of at least 9 huge (≤14 m) juxtaposed ichthyosaurs (Shonisaurus popularis). Shonisaurs were cephalopod‑eating predators comparable to sperm whales (Physeter). Hypotheses presented to explain the apparent mass mortality at the site have included: tidal flat stranding, sudden burial by slope failure, and phytotoxin poisoning. Citing the wackestone matrix, J. A. Holger argued convincingly for a deeper water setting, but her phytotoxicity hypothesis cannot explain how so many came to rest at virtually the same spot. Skeletal articulation indicates that animals were deposited on the sea floor shortly after death. Currents or other factors placed them in a north‑south orientation. Adjacent skeletons display different taphonomic histories and degrees of disarticulation, ruling out catastrophic mass death, but allowing a scenario in which dead ichthyosaurs were sequentially transported to a sea floor midden. We hypothesize that the shonisaurs were killed and carried to the site by an enormous Triassic cephalopod, a “kraken,” with estimated length of approximately 30 m, twice that of the modern Colossal Squid Mesonychoteuthis. In this scenario, shonisaurs were ambushed by a Triassic kraken, drowned, and dumped on a midden like that of a modern octopus. Where vertebrae in the assemblage are disarticulated, disks are arranged in curious linear patterns with almost geometric regularity. Close fitting due to spinal ligament contraction is disproved by the juxtaposition of different-sized vertebrae from different parts of the vertebral column. The proposed Triassic kraken, which could have been the most intelligent invertebrate ever, arranged the vertebral discs in biserial patterns, with individual pieces nesting in a fitted fashion as if they were part of a puzzle. The arranged vertebrae resemble the pattern of sucker discs on a cephalopod tentacle, with each amphicoelous vertebra strongly resembling a coleoid sucker. Thus the tessellated vertebral disc pavement may represent the earliest known self‑portrait. The submarine contest between cephalopods and seagoing tetrapods has a long history. A Triassic kraken would have posed a deadly risk for shonisaurs as they dove in pursuit of their smaller cephalopod prey.
• “Octopus Is First Invertebrate to Use Tools, Turning a Coconut Into Mobile Home (Video)”
  by Jaymi Heimbuch (TreeHugger; 2009.12.15) – http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/octopus-is-first-invertabrate-to-use-tools-turning-a-coconut-into-mobile-home.php
  • “!!OCTOPUS BUILDS A MOBILE HOME!!” (YouTube) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPhy5FZIdvk
  • “Octopus Coconut shell” (YouTube) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bHZjpjPD1A

Plan group intelligence

• Stefano Mancuso: The roots of plant intelligence (TED Talks; ) – http://www.ted.com/talks/stefano_mancuso_the_roots_of_plant_intelligence.html

Bacteria group intelligence

• “Twittering bacteria: on bacteria… social intelligence” by Vitorino Ramos (Chemoton blog; 2010.11.24) – http://chemoton.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/twittering-bacteria-on-bacteria-social-intelligence/
• “”Bacteria running supercomputers? How?” by adonis49 (Adonis Diaries; 2010.09.19) – http://adonis49.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/bacteria-running-supercomputers-how/
• “Bacteria ‘R’ Us” by Valerie Brown(Miller-McCune; 2010.12.02) – http://www.miller-mccune.com/science-environment/bacteria-r-us-23628/
  Emerging research shows that bacteria have powers to engineer the environment, to communicate and to affect human well-being. They may even think.

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Related here: Intelligence – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/10/27/intelligence/.