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mammals, birds and reptiles all show signs of emotional responses, such as an increased heart rate and elevated body temperature when handled, while fish and amphibians do not. The brains of higher vertebrates are also much richer in receptors for dopamine, the neurotransmitter most closely associated with reward pathways. He believes this is evidence that the ability to assign value to an experience arose around 300 million years ago in the common ancestor of modern reptiles, birds, and mammals – the first fully terrestrial vertebrate.


“The animal kingdom is suffused with other kinds of consciousness”

 consciousness evolved in early vertebrates and early arthropods during the Cambrian explosion, about 540 million years ago, when these groups diversified rapidly. (Consciousness in octopuses probably evolved about 250 million years later, after their lineage diverged from other, less intellectually gifted molluscs such as clams and snails.) This origin is interesting. The Cambrian explosion saw the emergence of most of the major animal groups alive today, and Jablonka suggests that consciousness – driven by selection for powerful learning ability – might have helped drive that rapid evolution. “I can’t think of many things that could change adaptability that dramatically,” she says