Metazoa: Animal Minds and the Birth of Consciousness

Dip below the ocean’s surface and you are soon confronted by forms of life that could not seem more foreign to our own: sea sponges, soft corals and flower-like worms, whose rooted bodies and intricate geometry are more reminiscent of plant life than anything recognizably animal. Yet these creatures are our cousins. As fellow members of the animal kingdom– the Metazoa– they can teach us about the evolutionary origins of not only our bodies, but also our minds.