It probably depends a lot on the ecological niche. For example, for a herbivore species, the marginal benefit from the high energy thinking mutation is low, it

It probably depends a lot on the ecological niche. For example, for a herbivore species, the marginal benefit from the high energy thinking mutation is low, it took millions of years of thinking in humans before we could reach the levels where agriculture was possible, and it was invented by people with a similar biological intelligence to modern humans. Whereas for a social hunter species, there are ample strategic and game theoretical benefits from even primitive thinking, and the dividend is enormous, since all of a sudden, with proper planing and coordination, you can hunt much larger animals than yourself, which can sustain the community for a very long time and at high energy levels which further enable selection for thinking. It's only after such large pray is depleted and there is no space for migration, because you are surrounded by other packs of competitive thinkers, that the need to control plant growth becomes imperative.