Humans

Humans as a species have a unique opportunity to live an die with universe because they can understand the events that will destroy them, like the scheduled explosion of the sun. A bacteria could maybe survive, as a spore, deep in a rock, protected from cosmic rays, until it lands on another habitable planet somewhere, and is freed from the rock on impact. But that would be just insanely random chance survival.

Humans model the world around them, and they can build tools to accomplish goals that they could never achieve bare handed. (They'll get in a ship and move to another planet rather than getting blown up by the sun.) Turns out that a brain for making sharp rocks, spears, and nests is pretty much enough to make a spaceship. Seriously, because we were in the stone age just a million years ago... and that's not enough time for a brain to evolve very much physically. Although it's definitely full of different information these days.

And, I mean no disrespect to the cavemen. Making a spear from rocks and stuff really is an advanced skill - both for somebody today or way back then.

We build layer upon layer, a machine to help build a machine, to help build a machine, until we can build 42 inch LCD screens and stuff. With the brain power that would have gone to figuring out how to survive in a jungle or a dessert, we figure out science, engineering, etc. And, we pretty much forget how to survive in the jungle or the dessert ... sort of OK because so few of us need to.