Reminds me of "Doctor Diagoras", a short story by Stanislaw Lem. Also known for the "Solaris" novel (adapted by Tarkovsky and Soderbergh) We expect to find ali

Reminds me of "Doctor Diagoras", a short story by Stanislaw Lem. Also known for the "Solaris" novel (adapted by Tarkovsky and Soderbergh) We expect to find alien lifeforms out there, but plenty of species on Earth remain to be discovered and studied. And rediscovered: finding out we overlooked some particularly interesting/puzzling behavior in apparently boring species, whose research might lead to breakthroughs in genetics, computing, mathematics, etc.