I disagree, all people have endoskeletons. All known intelligent species (whales,dolphins, apes, ect) do as well. The octopus is a newcomer that hasn’t been properly studied yet, seeing as reports of social structures and complex relations are like 2-3 years old in terms of first reporting.

Also, unless you go full Buddhist mode and treat all life as equally viable there is going to be a hierarchy of some sort. Personally, I’m fine saying a human matters more than a rattlesnake and saying a bee matters more than a cockroach.

Like there exist species who the planet would collapse without, and there are those who if they disappeared would simply have their niche filled by another species.

Or take humans, if we all got raptured only domestic species would suffer outside of those who would suffer due to problems we previously created and were trying to contain like domestic cats. They would be fine for the most part if they had access to the outside at the time of disappearance.

So there are species that matter due to ecology and species who matter because of their intelligence.

I’ll fight a person who says an elephants life has less meaning than a spider crab