Biology Revelations and Ramblings

Just simple thoughts related to biology! They're probably wordy, messy, and hard to understand in general, but my thoughts are indeed out there!

- Evolution, Emotions, and Organisms

So, if you understand basic evolution, you know that (most likely) every single living thing has evolved at one point or another, and there are tons of species with common ancestors dating back even to the billions. Combining that with a bit of genetics and psychology, it makes me wonder how emotions play in the evolutionary history of the Earth. When did they first appear or start to appear? When did they branch off? What about other organisms? Thinking about evolution and the environmental effects,, it also makes me wonder of environmental factors that could possibly change how brain chemicals work and whatnot (I am not as knowledgeable in psychology so forgive me,,) and the overall evolutionary emotions of a species. Now, moving on to a specific organism. Jumping spiders, as some may know, are considered one of the most intelligent species of spiders, and,, dare I say,, bug in general. With their more expressive emotions, their curious and adventurous personalities, and visual thinking, it makes me wonder how they have this higher level of intelligence in the first place. Then, one thought after another,,, I then thought of emotions in bugs in general and why they have this intelligence range that possibly differs from other species, and maybe even differing from individual to individual,, and put that thought into all organisms in the Earth as a whole. I wonder what influences emotions,, what plays a role in how they exist, and what plays a role in how they form and fluctuate? How do organisms evolve their respective ranges of intelligence and emotion, anyhow? All these questions revolve back to my original: Why do jumping spiders have more intelligence and/or emotion than other spiders?,, which,,, with further thinking,, I can brainstorm a few ideas, even without understanding the concept as a whole. Perhaps multiple mutations occurred, resulting in an expanse in emotions and evolution? Like most people think, perhaps organisms grew in intelligence over time through evolutionary means? Just some, like humans, evolved their intelligence more-so than others. But,, then again, who's to say organisms didn't have a good amount of intelligence in the past, and others lost these intelligence factors through evolution, while others retained it, such as humans? Even defying the laws of natural selection, perhaps there was some sort of massive co-evolution phenomena or something of the sort, eventually numbing down their intelligence. This could also play the factor in why homosapiens (humans) had managed to wipe out all the others of our kind and intelligence in the past, even if it may just be due to simple advantages. Perhaps this past intelligence, as I speak of,,,,, had reappeared more in jumping spiders? Either by chance or through recessive factors? Of course, this not only speaks for just jumping spiders, but other organisms as well, like cephalopods, and,, really, humans in general. Some of these theories may be or sound plain stupid, but It's best to not rule anything out until specifically tested and confirmed. All in plain pondering fun, anyhow! Really interesting to think about.

- Cephalopod Intelligence

If you didn't already know, cephalopods are insanely smart. They have incredible memory skills and can learn rather fast. They're one of the very, very few organisms that have learned how to hide in plain sight, even covering themselves with plants, shells, or other things to confuse predators that may be curious or hungry. They are also one of the very, very few organisms that have cognitive thinking and reasoning. Hell, I'd say they're almost as smart as us, or even surpassing some of us, in a few aspects of intelligence. Either way, it makes me wonder about their genetic code, how they evolved over time, how long it took them to get to this point, the common ancestors between humans and cephalopods, and just how far back their intelligence goes on the evolutionary scale,, in tight correlation to my previous thought (see Evolution, Emotions, and Organisms). I wonder if we could try to predict how they could evolve in the future, and at what point it may be possible for them to reach the intelligence of humans in,, even more aspects, I suppose! Though, I sincerely doubt human capabilities in those fields,, as we haven't even figured out some of the functions of their skin cells or how they ENTIRELY work. i lost my train of thought er, ill BE BACK TO WRITE MORE.

- Common Aquatics

I know the last two were heavily focused on animals and humans and their respective intelligences, but this is a more basic concept,,, unrelated to that, of course. So sharks,,, obviously, they're loved and adored with many other marine animals. This can include rays, whales, jellyfish, and deep sea marine life including the giant isopod. I agree, all of these animals are very cool and interesting, and I used to have an obsession with them, too,,, but, I feel that the common fish is often very overlooked and essentially drowned out by the other marine life. In that case, I've decided to focus more on the "common" parts of marine life. I want to make major comparisons between common fish species and how they are largely different, as well as little traits that make them specifically unique, to make them stand out more and have,, well,,,, more of a chance when faced against the popular stars of marine life. I've already started by observing a fish's caudal fins and how they differ from species to species,, and how they're similar from species to species. Admittedly, I observed these fish in an aquarium, but I found some species have similar caudal fin shapes, which makes them move similarly to the others with the same type of caudal fin. Of course, their movement does vary with the shapes of their other fins, but for the most part, I observed how some caudal fins allow for better agility, speed, hovering, turning, etc.,, for example, I noticed that caudal fins with a split in between the top and bottom half are better are turning quickly. Or at least, that's how the fish seemed to move. Then again, these are all observations and not fact, as I'd need to do a proper experiment to confirm anything. (or jjust,, google,,, but i'm trying to test my independent observation capabilities and expand on them!)

I will PROBABLY add more! Either another section/paragraph or simply adding on to an already existing section/paragraph. Thanks for reading, if you did! Sorry if it's messy and hard to understand, I grew tired halfway through writing all of this,,,

brain hurty