Octopuses are unique within the animal kingdom. They may even be Earth's next big species if ours ends up going the way of the dinosaurs.
While an octopus-dominated future may seem "improbable" at the moment, it "wouldn’t be the first time that an ocean-dwelling species took advantage of a land species extinction to adapt and evolve," Popular Mechanics said. Humanity's own distant ancestors were initially aquatic.
Although birds and insects have demonstrated a capacity for complex thinking and tool usage, octopuses are a "potentially better candidate for filling an ecological niche in a post-human world," Oxford University biologist Tim Coulson said to The European. They are some of the "most intelligent, adaptable and resourceful creatures on Earth," with "advanced neural structure, decentralized nervous system and remarkable problem-solving skills." They are even "capable of distinguishing between real and virtual objects, solving puzzles, interacting with their environment, handling intricate tools with their thumb-like tentacles, and thriving in a wide variety of habitats."
Octopuses have certain biological features that could, under the right circumstances, place them at the top of the evolutionary heap, but many variables could waylay any hopes of an octo-centric future. Absent some dramatic, unforeseen evolutionary leap, "octopuses are still working from a snail blueprint, and there's only so much you can do with that toolbox," said biologist Culum Brown at The Conversation.
Crucially, octopuses' evolutionary prospects are "highly constrained by their very short life span," said Brown, and they would need to evolve their social habits to develop intergenerational connections. Conversely, octopuses' "hasty reproduction and quick intellectual maturity" could give them an "advantage in rapidly changing environments," Earth.com said. | 
