What prevents other animals/species from evolving and developing cognitively the same way humans have?

Question

What prevents other animals/species from evolving and developing cognitively the same way humans have?

In: 145

Answer 1

Evolutionarily, I’ve always heard that it was diet. Humans eat a lot more fat and protein from other animals such as birds, for example. It allowed our brains to grow larger over time and got us to a point where our brain to body size ratio is a bit of an outlier.

You could also check out this wiki article:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalization_quotient](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalization_quotient)

While brain size alone isn’t a perfect indicator, the bit above accounts for some other factors and puts humans way at the top, followed by dolphins, crows, whales, etc. Pretty much what you expect when you think of “smart” animals.