News / World  Does this ancient sea creature hold key to human
intelligence?  British researchers say they have pinpointed the
evolutionary moment that jump-started the birth of intelligence
550 million years ago.  If you have the intellectual capacity to
read this sentence, then perhaps you have a wriggly ancient sea
creature to thank for it.  British researchers say they have
pinpointed the evolutionary moment that jump-started the birth
of intelligence and complex thought: 550 million years ago, when
an underwater invertebrate experienced a “genetic accident” that
led to an explosion of new genes.  But the findings, published
in two complementary papers by the journal Nature Neuroscience,
also suggest that for humans — a descendant of this sea creature
— higher intelligence ultimately came at a price: mental
illness.  “What we did was prove that these genes that arose 550
million years ago are the genes that made our behaviour much
more sophisticated,” said Seth Grant, a professor at the
University of Edin