Did Consciousness First Evolve in the Amniotes?

Abstract

The term consciousness is here used to represent a feature of neural systems. This constraint allows for an attempt to model its evolutionary trajectory. Various lines of evidence point to the initiating events occurring in connection with the adaptation of vertebrates to a life on land, which started more than 300 million years ago in the early amniotes. Presumably, the main evolutionary advantage of consciousness was a more sophisticated strategy for making decisions. I suggest that this strategy depended on the use of positive and negative feelings as a common currency to evaluate behavioral options. Feelings require the ability to feel, and thus a form of awareness, which may have spurred the instigation of consciousness. According to the present model, consciousness is not required for a nervous system to display advanced computational capacity.