How did intelligent life got so advanced on land (humans) than in the oceans considering how the ocean is the greater part of the world and has much more diversity in it?

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How did intelligent life got so advanced on land (humans) than in the oceans considering how the ocean is the greater part of the world and has much more diversity in it?

In: Biology

38 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Likely the evolution of hands. If you are talking about advancements as in technology. In the ocean hands are not as useful as on land. Terrestrial creatures evolved to ambulate and eventually to climb – where hands are a great advantage. In the ocean there isn’t much you need to be able to grab and hold on to other than food that you can grab with your mouth. Being able to manipulate objects easily makes tool use and development much easier. Some birds (crows, parrots) have been shown to use crude tools but lack the ability to really modify and customize them. But when you have hands now there is an evolutionary advantage to having more intelligence. Not that hands drive the evolution of intelligence (see whales, dolphins, said birds, octopi etc.) but when you have them you can utilize that intelligence to greater advantage.

Basically, our society may not be more socially advanced than some whales and dolphins, we don’t really have a way to compare. However we can build stuff because we can easily manipulate our environment.

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