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By the way, there is an interesting question. Which species on Earth would be more interesting to the eyes of an extraterrestrial specie, which would come to visit this biosphere?
Likely, the species which are located on the top peaks of specialization in each type of environment, would be considered the most interesting. Therefore, in no case it would be a Primate, since Primates are a good example of a low specialization level.
About the marine biome, I would say that most specialized species, under many aspects, are the cetaceans.
In the ‘air’, the bats and several species of birds.
On the land, probably the felids and the big herbivores are at the top of the of specialization (extreme carnivores and extreme vegetarians). The felids keep the populations of many other species (from herbivores, to small rodents) under control. Leopards where among the controllers of our population, when we lived primitively in Africa (firs in forest, then in the savanna).
These groups of species avail of a large number of advanced adaption features. The most astonishing are certainly the Cetaceans.
Cetaceans were once quadruped animals which lived on the land, near to the sea water. When probably a climate change cut the availability of food around them, they started to search for food in the water. Mutation after mutation and selection after selection, their limbs turned into fins and their body got a hydrodynamic shape, like fishes.
Probably the cetaceans have a reminiscence in their DNA about their remote past as land animals. Probably they recognize that the Homo Sapiens are not an aquatic specie, when they see us in the water, reeling with our arms and legs trying to “swim”. Probably because of this, many the cetaceans tends spontaneously to rescue humans in the water. I guess that we look to them as small spiders look to us.
In the prehistory also a group of reptiles performed the same transformation, but they went extinct later. (See the Ichthyosaur).
It’s incredible what mutations and selections can do. Isn’t it?
Cetaceans
Cetaceans have a very advanced communication system, in addition to a plenty of very sophisticated and fine modifications for the life in water.
Bats have turned their hands into wings. They have developed a powerful ultrasonic echolocation system, to can fly and hunt in complete darkness. Their hearing is capable to hear sounds at 130.000 Hz. (Read more about bats here).
Felids have developed a plenty of unique adaptations too. Differently than the other species, all their 5 senses are developed at a very high level. Moreover, cats seems to orientate through the magnetic field of the Earth, and seems to be sensitive to electric fields in some extent. The sense of touch of cats is highly developed along the whole body surface. Their highly sensitive whiskers detects minimal vibrations in the air, and they can ‘see’ their preys in the complete darkness. They can hear sounds up to 65.000 Hz. Human can’t hear beyond 18-20.000 Hz. Their smell is highly selective toward specific chemical substances. A male cat can smell a female in heat from 3 Km distance (1,8 miles). The skeleton of felids is a masterpiece of agility and flexibility. Their forelimbs are attached to the shoulder by a floating clavicle, which gives a unique mobility to the forelimbs of felids (except the Cheetah).
The tongue of felids has developed micro hooks to take away all the meat rests from the bones of their preys. They have developed a unique mechanism to pull in/out claws. The paws of felids are a masterpiece, they are soft, silent and sharp. Several species of felids have even developed the purring mechanism, unique among all the species. It is not yet completely explained how the purring works, how and why it appeared during their evolutionary history. The purring seems to have benefits in relaxing the whole organism and in recovering injuries at bones. (Read more about Felids here in Wikipedia).
About the brain, the most interesting is the one of birds. There are birds which have more cognitive intelligence than many mammals! Crows are even able to build a hook, bending an iron wire to pull a piece of food out of a bottle. They are able to build a tool, without even having hands! Even dogs are not able to build tools. Crows do it, with their small and concentrated brain. Compared to the brain of birds, our brain is much more inefficient, in relation to its volume and weight. They have a higher density of neuron cells. They have more neurons in the same unit of volume, and they are close relatives to dinosaurs. These brains are masterpieces of the evolution. Not our bulky brain. About the intelligence of crows, I recommend to watch this video, this, and this.
Big herbivores have evolved in the “opposite” direction than Felids. They are extremely specialized vegetarians. They build up their powerful and muscled bodies eating only very low caloric food: grass and leaves. Their cognitive intelligence is lower than in other categories of mammals, and they are less interested in interacting with humans, but as already explained, intelligence is only one of the many parameters which define a specie, and it is away not the most important in the judgment of its evolutionary grade. Anyway if you examine them more closely, you will discover that all the herbivores, big and small (as well gooses) are much more intelligent as commonly assumed. Do a search in internet about this.
These groups of species, speaking only about the mammals, are true masterpieces of the evolution, much more than a non-specialized primate.
The 5 senses of the Human are the worst among the mammals. All other species could not survive if they would exchange their senses with ours.
Our body agility is also very bad. We do everything poorly: swim, run, jump, dig, etc… Any other specie would not exchange its agility with ours. Our brain is the expression of the poor performances of our non specialized body.
The Numbers ONE
These groups of extremely specialized species can be defined the NUMBERS ONE of the biosphere in the biomes of water, land and air (if we consider the mammals the most evolved category of species, at the present time).
I guess that an extraterrestrial specie which would study our biosphere would classify these species as the most evolved mammals, and it would be more interested to interact with them, not with the bloody and parasite Homo Sapiens, the less specialized primate!
Note that just these 3 categories of species are the most mistreated group of species by the Homo Sapiens.
Wales have been hunted almost to extinction, to exploit them as oil and raw resource like if they were oil barrels.
Bats are considered unpleasant and demoniac animals just because of their weird aesthetic appearance. Almost all species of bats eats insects or fruits, but the human culture makes all them vampires, because a small bunch of species licks blood of other animals after they have bitten them (the bitten animal don’t die, they are just superficially wounded by the teeth).
The big felids (lions, tigers, cheetah, leopards) have been hunted almost to extinction, and very likely they will get extincted in the wild in the next 20-30 years. The medium size felids (lynxes, pumas) will be the next.
The small size felid (the cat), is one of the most hated species by a large part of the human population and it has been depicted as demoniac specie by some primitive cultures (Christians). Black cats are still killed today due to similar primitive superstitions.
What would an extraterrestrial civilization think about us, observing how we have treated and treat the numbers one of our biosphere?