The Cambrian explosion and the origins of embodied cognition.
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Consciousness was a big advance that also contributed to the further success of these taxa: arthropods have always been an extremely diverse and abundant phylum, and vertebrates include the largest animals with the biggest brains, at the top of the food chain.
“Consciousness was a big advance that also contributed to the further (later) success of these taxa: arthropods have always been an extremely diverse and abundant phylum, and vertebrates include the largest animals with the biggest brains, at the top of the food chain.”
From Phenomenal Consciousness and Emergence: Eliminating the Explanatory Gap (2020) · cites this paper as Trestman (2013)
Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe combination of distal senses and faster movement enabled predation.
“The combination of distal senses and faster movement enabled predation [14], which in turn led to the evolution of defensive mechanisms (shells and burrowing both emerge in the CE) as well as weapons (hard mouth parts appear in arthropods in the CE, as do the first grabbing appendages [15]).”
From The social origins of consciousness (2025) · cites this paper as [15]
In “My proposed explanation: Basic Cognitive Embodiment” (page unavailable), Trestman links visual sensing and active mobility to the rise of visually guided predators. But he says basic cognitive embodiment is required to use sensory information to control movement; distal senses and powered locomotion alone would be useless. The claim captures the link to predation but omits that essential condition. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMotile predators must be able to subtract their own motion from incoming sensory information to accurately track prey or conspecifics, via reafference.
“For example, motile predators must be able to subtract their own motion from incoming sensory information to accurately track prey or conspecifics, via a process known as reafference, which may have been one of the earliest functions of neuronal systems [15,33,34].”
From The social origins of consciousness (2025) · cites this paper as [15]
The Vision/Eyes section (page unavailable) says animals must predict and cancel sensory changes caused by their own movements to maintain a stable perception of their surroundings. The Basic Cognitive Embodiment section connects spatial tracking to predators, competitors, and mates, but the copy does not identify this process as reafference or say it was among the earliest functions of neuronal systems. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe Cambrian explosion is thought to have been sparked by the evolution of the first predatory animals, leading to an adaptive arms race that yielded many distinct taxa with different defensive and predatory strategies.
“This explosion is thought to have been sparked by the evolution of the first predatory animals (the earlier, ancestral worms had fed on sea-floor scum), leading to an adaptive arms race that yielded many distinct taxa with different defensive and predatory strategies.”
From Phenomenal Consciousness and Emergence: Eliminating the Explanatory Gap (2020) · cites this paper as Trestman (2013)
Trestman (2013) detailed how the appearance of object-oriented, spatial vision led not only to brain elaboration but also to a basic kind of 'cognition' that controlled the body actions of locomotion and feeding.
“Trestman (2013) recently fleshed out the Light Switch hypothesis by detailing how the appearance of object-oriented, spatial vision led not only to brain elaboration but also to a basic kind of “cognition” that controlled the body actions of locomotion and feeding.”
From The evolutionary and genetic origins of consciousness in the Cambrian Period over 500 million years ago (2013) · cites this paper as Trestman (2013)
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References 51 · Cited by 70
Research works printed but not linked: 10
- Butterfield, Nicholas J. 1997. "Plankton ecology and the Proterozoic- Phanerozoictransition." Paleobiology2,3(2) pp. 247-262.
- Budd, Graham E. "Palaeontology: Cambrian nervous wrecks." Nature 490.7419 (2012): 180-181.
- Halanych, Kenneth M. "The new view of animal phylogeny." Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (2004): 229-256.
- Harvey, Thomas HP, Maria I. Vélez, and Nicholas J. Butterfield. 2012. "Exceptionally preserved crustaceans from western Canada reveal a cryptic Cambrian radiation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109.5: 1589-1594.
- Jones, David, et al. "The sharpest tools in the box? Quantitative analysis of conodont element functional morphology." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279.1739 (2012): 2849-2854.
- Kroger B, Servais T, Zhang Y. 2009. The Origin and Initial Rise of Pelagic Cephalopods in the Ordovician. PLoS ONE 4(9): e7262.
- Ma, Xiaoya, et al. "Complex brain and optic lobes in an early Cambrian arthropod." Nature 490.7419 (2012): 258-261.
- Narbonne, Guy M. "THE EDIACARA BIOTA: Neoproterozoic Origin." Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci 33 (2005): 421-42.
- Stanley, Steven M. 1973. "An Ecological Theory for the Sudden Origin of Multicellular Life in the Late Precambrian." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 70 (5): 1486.
- Stevens, Martin, et al. "Motion dazzle and camouflage as distinct anti-predator defenses." BMC biology 9.1 (2011): 81.
- Authors
- Trestman, M.
- Affiliations
- Indiana University Bloomington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Trestman, Michael
- Venue
- Biological Theory
- Published
- 2013-04-12
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 80-92
- ISSN
- 1555-5542 (ISSN-L)
- 1555-5550
- OpenAlex
- W2019649099
- Cited by
- 70
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 1.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- philarchive.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Biological Theory (publishedVersion)
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy and History of Science
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Keywords
- Cambrian explosion, embodied cognition, adaptive radiation, animal body plans, spatial cognition, evolution of the mind, evolutionary origins of cognition
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