<p>I think I described myself as having selective curiosity or something.</p>
<p>No, <em>everyone</em> has selective curiosity. Actually I know that when people praise animal intelligence - its sometimes mentioned that the animal has an <em>interest</em> in what the person is doing - which most people lack. Its been used to praise octopus, dolphin, and mantis shrimp intelligence.</p>
<p>(but its hard to think of a tiny organism like a mantis shrimp with intelligence equal to that of a mouse. It just seems to have specialized mantis-shrimp-recognition software. Its monogamous sure, but I highly doubt that feelings of affection/bonding really come in it [Im sure its convenient monogamy]).</p>
<p>Octopuses are interesting though - since they seem to rely heavily on learned behavior as opposed to instinct. Hell, most mammals and birds seem to rely heavily on instinct, with few exceptions (cetaceans, elephants, corvids, and great apes). Oh and the great apes are paraphyletic. I like that word. Its used a lot for concrete classification. Remember the old Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species? Its obsolete now. Hell the old Bird class is contained in an ORDER (an order descended from the dinosaurs). So it becomes order class order. haha.</p>
<p>(but taxonomy is really only a product of the context. You can RUIN the entire taxonomic branch by introducing bacterial DNA into the genomes of most organisms. Actually, truth is, human DNA DOES contain some viral DNA. So then humans wouldnt be strictly descended from the ancestor of all animals. Theyd also be descended from viruses, in a way)</p>