Quoted By:
memory, elephants will be the next species to obtain true sentience.
/x/ post warning
Humans and Neanderthals both had rituals surrounding death. Some species of cetaceans have also show rituals surrounding death, while elephants are known to visit the dead and sometimes "bury" the dead by throwing leaves and shit on them. I even read some gorillas have been seen visiting the dead and grooming them. All of these species I mentioned have a well developed neocortex, I think that this grieving the dead is the precursor the more abstract emotion of sadness. From sadness, there is advantage. If something causes the death of someone in you family group, it makes you sad and the emotion helps commit to memory. These animals would be more likely to avoid behavior that caused death. From sadness may come happiness, or maybe happiness has it's own unique origin from the pleasure of being satiated and reproduction. Animals with more highly developed neocortex appear to be the animals that show the most emotion. Great apes in particular seem to show the most emotion. I don't think bigger neocortex = more emotional development, the neocortex's importance comes from it's role in semantic memory. I think our consciousness and abstract thinking abilities are an emergent factor that rise from a particular balance of developed emotions.