[WildUtah]

You -- unless you are a Pygmy or Sen or the like -- are a species that lived in a protected niche for 100,000 or more years without making much of it. Then you -- we -- figured out writing and agriculture and pottery. The next logical step was semiconductor laser photolithographic doping and here we are on the internet sharing photos of cats.

So let's hear a cheer for protection from hostile environments.

[logfromblammo]

If your species left Ascension Island and went on to become the dominant species on the entire planet, please raise your... appendage.

It wasn't until humanity left its protected niche that it really did anything interesting. And now we are the only ones capable of intentionally spreading life to other planets. So if your species took a gamble and made an alliance with humanity early, congratulations, you get to survive the planet-death extinction event someday. Good job, dogs and apple trees! Poor show, guinea worm and smallpox.