The Genius Spiders Changing How We Think About Brains

Picture a hunter stalking its prey.

Its keen eyes constantly take in its surroundings  and plot the best course to its unwitting lunch.

It plans its attack based on the victim’s  attributes and immediate surroundings,  

and uses these to pin its victim down.

It patiently executes every move with not  merely primal instinct, but wily calculation.

It's done this before and has  honed its approach with experience.

At just the right moment, it pounces  with a big leap, taking down its meal.

This sounds like a scene from Tom and  Jerry, or like a human hunter in the woods.

But what I’m describing is not a cat, or  even a mammal, or a bird or a reptile.

It’s not even a vertebrate.

It’s a spider.

And not just any spider, but a genus  of jumping spider known as Portia.

These spiders are so smart that they have  upended how scientists look at cognition,  

especially in invertebrates.

They’re forcing us to totally  rethink how we think about thinking.