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Perhaps what is 'unique' to animals with neocorteces (neocortexes? sp?) is not that they have the ability to understand complex communication systems, but that they actively must learn these communication systems... Similarly with the idea of parenting I was tossing around earlier- maybe what is significant about the time during which mammals and birds are cared for by parents is that during this infancy period they learn from their parents. (I don't think that this necessarily must include a parental figure actively teaching, chimps certainly have learned, shared behavior with very little active teaching by older members of a community, but a lot of active learning by young...) I'm not certain how bees understand their crazy scent-dance system of communication, but I don't think that it is something they go about learning, rather, I was under the impression that it was something instinctual... Just a thought.

-Molly