The Dink Network

: Starfish have no brains. (I know some more people like that too.)

I'd have to argue that point... when the creature becomes small enough, defining a "brain" as such can bedifficult. A starfish's movements are based entirely on the animals surroundings. I guess you can think of it as a sort of if-then-else kind of logic.

So i guess it depends what constitutes a brain, or rather, wether the brain has to be centralised, rather than distributed. If we are going to say that a starfish has no brain, you will rule out a whole class of animals, such as small jellyfish, marine "filter feeders", various [you know those slimey slug like thingies, only much much smaller? i can't remember their name...]

so yeah, I'm standing up for starfish's rights to be counted as an "intelligent species"...