Could cold-blooded animals, in theory, develop intelligence? nt

[raccoon]

[yellowcanine]

1. Tom DeLay, for example? I doubt it.

[caraher]

2. How about Dick Cheney?

A very low form of intelligence, to be sure...

[phantom power]

3. Sure.

I assume you mean tool-using intelligence, or language intelligence, or human-ish intelligence. All creatures embody certain kinds of intelligence. Knowledge about how to make a living in their niche.

[raccoon]

4. Yes, that's what I meant.

Thanks for a serious response. :-)

[ejbrush]

5. Octopi are very smart little buggers.

N/T

[Lisa0825]

6. Truly!

I have seen amazing videos of them learning to get through mechanisms set up as tests. They are very smart!

[NickB79]

8. Squibbons!

http://www.thefutureiswild.com/index.asp?level1id=3&level2id=8&level3id=11&level4id=34&level5id=34

[frogmarch]

7. Another vote for octopi!

My sister, whose husband is a marine biologist who works in a large aquarium, said that a few years ago, lobsters were being stolen from their glass tank, eaten on the spot, and the shells and claws thrown into the seal enclosure. No one could understand how the seals could have climbed out of their enclosure and taken the lobsters. Turns out it wasn't the seals doing it. An octopus was sliding the top of its tank over a crack, then climbing out and slithering to the lobster tank and grabbing lobsters, eating them, and blaming the seals. :-)