Interesting observation. People do tend to think this, but it's not true. Humans are really, really, top 5% of species, good at a number of odd tasks. We're excellent at dumping waste heat. This allows us to run longer, if not faster, than most other mammals. If a man can track a horse, he can catch up to it, eventually.
If you make a chart of species' ability to swim and dive, mankind shows up next to the sea otters and other mostly aquatic mammals. This has led some to suppose that our evolutionary line had a sea ape stage. (If anyone's mind is conjuring fancies that other branch stayed in the oceans and evolved into H.P.'s Deep Ones, that's not my fault.)
It may be that a species needs to be very capable at some things before intelligence can become an option.
(no subject)
Interesting observation. People do tend to think this, but it's not true. Humans are really, really, top 5% of species, good at a number of odd tasks. We're excellent at dumping waste heat. This allows us to run longer, if not faster, than most other mammals. If a man can track a horse, he can catch up to it, eventually.
If you make a chart of species' ability to swim and dive, mankind shows up next to the sea otters and other mostly aquatic mammals. This has led some to suppose that our evolutionary line had a sea ape stage. (If anyone's mind is conjuring fancies that other branch stayed in the oceans and evolved into H.P.'s Deep Ones, that's not my fault.)
It may be that a species needs to be very capable at some things before intelligence can become an option.
(no subject)
Interesting thought!