“[Fungal networks] have recently been discovered by Professor Suzanne Simard and her graduate students to connect the roots of trees and facilitate the sharing of resources in Douglas-fir forests of interior British Columbia, thereby bolstering their resilience against disturbance or stress and facilitating the establishment of new regeneration.” http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/potd/2010/03/mycorrhizal_networks.php
The “sharing of resources” is a behavior that only a few years ago many people would not believe fungi and trees to be capable of. The idea in the Prescribed Title that people may think “we are the most important thing in the universe” could have prevented some researchers from looking into possible sharing behavior in fungi, trees, and other organisms.
There are some kinds of behavior, such as sharing, that some people think is a “human” trait. Those same people may not want to recognize that behavior in non-human organisms even there is solid evidence.