Evolving the wheel

[Rum]

As I was walking the dogs this evening I found myself marvelling at their leg action and at how evolution had developed locomotion in this form. It got me wondering though.

Do you think that life (on earth) would be able to evolve the wheel as a form of locomotion?

[cowiz]

Bacterial flagellum

[Coito ergo sum]

Tumbleweed.

[Bella Fortuna]

Tumbleweed.

[cowiz]

The wheelie bin

It's wheelie been great to be here, try the soup

[Rum]

Bacterial flagellum

I thought it was a polite enough opener...

[devogue]

Legs seem pretty efficient.

[Rum]

I'm going to have to resort to Rat Skep I think. :sighsm:

[AshtonBlack]

Interesting question.
I can't think of a circumstance where it could evolve through natural selection, since it hasn't already.

[cowiz]

I'm going to have to resort to Rat Skep I think. :sighsm:

The flagellum is driven by a wheel

[cowiz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellum

[RuleBritannia]

Only if having a wheel, rather than limbs, has a survival advantage.

[cowiz]

Interesting question.
I can't think of a circumstance where it could evolve through natural selection, since it hasn't already.

Bollocks. What about Chorlton & The Wheelies?

Here's a clip from a documentary about them:

[Thinking Aloud]

Interesting question.
I can't think of a circumstance where it could evolve through natural selection, since it hasn't already.

Bollocks. What about Chorlton & The Wheelies?

Here's a clip from a documentary about them:

Ahhhhhh! I just regressed to a happy childhood.

[owtth]

Phillip Pullman came up with a creature that evolved to use a seed as a wheel.

From the Wikipedia page

The Mulefa evolved in a radically different fashion from humans. These elephant-like creatures possess an anatomy based on a diamond-framed skeleton lacking a spine, have four legs, short horns, and a prehensile trunk that functionally takes the place of hands. Signing with the trunk is an integral part of Mulefa language. They form close-knit communities, closer than most human groups met in the novel. One of the reasons for the closeness of their communities is that, lacking two hands, it usually requires two or more Mulefa trunks working together to accomplish complex tasks like tying knots.

A notable feature of the Mulefa is their use of large, disc-shaped seed pods from their world's enormous "seed-pod trees" in locomotion; the pods fit neatly onto a spur on their front and rear legs when each zalif is grown enough to use it. They propel themselves using their two side legs, like a cyclist without pedals. Ancient lava flows solidified into smooth rivers of rock running across the land serve as roads to ease transport. The Mulefa have a symbiotic relationship with the seedpod trees - their use of the pods on the "roads" allows the extremely hard exterior to crack and the seeds to emerge. These are germinated by the Mulefa, allowing the wheel-pod trees to survive. As the book notes, it is the three combined elements of seed-pod, spur, and rock formation which leads to the current Mulefa existence.