Why didn't animals evolve wheels?

[cronus]

Wheels are really good for moving around. So why legs, even in the insect kingdom....?

[Hermit]

Because...


                      

!!1!	NOTMOD Question answered. Thread locked.

[NineBerry]

The video is good. And in Pullman's Dark Materials Series, we find the correct conditions for wheel evolution in a parallel universe.

[Hermit]

The video is good.

Of course it is. It includes a picture of a kitty.

[Tero]

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... ved-wheels

[Sælir]

It is quite important for some animals to climb trees.
That would be difficult with wheels.

[cronus]

It is quite important for some animals to climb trees.
That would be difficult with wheels.

That still leaves a lot who'd have a distinct advantage with wheels....

[pcCoder]

The terrain of the planet doesn't really work well for wheels. An animal with wheels is actually limited. Legs can move on flat land, but can also climb and maneuver as needed. Wheels would only be adequate on reasonably flat land.

[cronus]

The terrain of the planet doesn't really work well for wheels. An animal with wheels is actually limited. Legs can move on flat land, but can also climb and maneuver as needed. Wheels would only be adequate on reasonably flat land.

The wheels could be hidden when not in usage like claws....if you want to be technical.

[JimC]

Non-powered wheels, like on a skateboard, might be possible. They could develop with the usual nerve and blood connections, turn into something like horn, and then the initial connections could wither away. (still with a difficulty in lubrication...)

But powered wheels might simply be impossible, given the need for some form of continuing nerve connection and blood supply.

[laklak]

Off road Hummerbird?

[NineBerry]

[Tero]

Flagellum, Cecil link earlier

You're not impressed. "Armadillos, tumbleweeds, freaking rocks roll," you say. "What I want to see is a creature with a wheel and axle."

Coming right up. The bacterium Escherichia coli, among others, moves by spinning whiplike filaments called flagella like tiny propellers. The typical flagellum is rotated up to several hundred times per second by what is basically an organic electric motor. We know it spins (rather than, say, twisting back and forth like a washing machine agitator) because researchers glued down an E. coli flagellum and the critter's body spun around like an eggbeater. If this thing isn't a wheel, it's pretty darn close. For an illustration, see http://www.arn.org/docs/mm/flag_labels.jpg. (This phenomenon is often used to make an argument about intelligent design to which Cecil doesn't subscribe, but our interest here is in the illustration, not the argument.)

[JimC]

What can work at the cellular level may not work on the macro scale.

[Seth]

I wanna know why, in 40 million years, sharks haven't evolved either arms or advanced brains.