Arthropod Sapience

Arthropod sapience is the occurrence of selected traits - including problem solving skills, critical thinking, ethical thinking, emotion, suffering, altruism, and empathy - within populations of arthropods.

It has evolved separately in both salticids and giant solenopsids, as well as in various other arthropod populations, as a result of evolutionary pressure immediately succeeding the Sixth Mass Extinction.

Traditionally, the brains of arthropods were not large enough to support this adaptation, but due to an increase in the oxygen level of the atmosphere over 20 million years, arthropods were able to grow much larger than even in the first Carboniferous.