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Author Topic:   How come evolution never developed the wheel?
coffee_addict
Member (Idle past 476 days)
Posts: 3645
From: Indianapolis, IN
Joined: 03-29-2004


Message 1 of 37 (846020)
12-26-2018 5:35 PM


Off the top of my head, I can't think of any animal that uses the wheel and axle for locomotive purposes. How come evolution never came up with the wheel and axle?

If you say the word "gullible" slowly, it sounds like oranges. Go ahead and try it.

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AdminNosy
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Message 2 of 37 (846022)
12-26-2018 5:40 PM


Thread Copied from Proposed New Topics Forum
Thread copied here from the How come evolution never developed the wheel? thread in the Proposed New Topics forum.

  
Tangle
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Member Rating: 4.9


Message 3 of 37 (846024)
12-26-2018 6:12 PM


Two reasons
1. Not all possible variants will necessarily evolve - there aren't any tripods either as far as I know.
2. The wheel and axle is can't be innervated or supplied with blood because the 'cable' would twist around the axle.

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AnswersInGenitals
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Posts: 673
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(1)
Message 4 of 37 (846025)
12-26-2018 7:10 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by coffee_addict
12-26-2018 5:35 PM


How come evolution never developed the wheel?
It did.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by coffee_addict, posted 12-26-2018 5:35 PM coffee_addict has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 5 by RAZD, posted 12-26-2018 9:58 PM AnswersInGenitals has replied
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RAZD
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Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
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(1)
Message 5 of 37 (846026)
12-26-2018 9:58 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by AnswersInGenitals
12-26-2018 7:10 PM


How come evolution never developed the wheel?
It did.
and the gas bags to power them.
Enjoy

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AnswersInGenitals
Member (Idle past 150 days)
Posts: 673
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Message 6 of 37 (846031)
12-27-2018 6:03 AM
Reply to: Message 5 by RAZD
12-26-2018 9:58 PM


and the gas bags to power them.
Actually, they're powered by ATP's.

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coffee_addict
Member (Idle past 476 days)
Posts: 3645
From: Indianapolis, IN
Joined: 03-29-2004


Message 7 of 37 (846032)
12-27-2018 10:25 AM
Reply to: Message 4 by AnswersInGenitals
12-26-2018 7:10 PM


Are you talking about the flagella? If so, that's microscopic. I'm talking about animals we can pet and cuddle with.

If you say the word "gullible" slowly, it sounds like oranges. Go ahead and try it.

This message is a reply to:
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Tangle
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Posts: 9489
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Message 8 of 37 (846078)
12-27-2018 3:08 PM
Reply to: Message 7 by coffee_addict
12-27-2018 10:25 AM


Lammy writes:
Are you talking about the flagella? If so, that's microscopic. I'm talking about animals we can pet and cuddle with.
There aren't any.
Rolling and wheels in the natural world - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The nearest I know about would be the ratchet in a grasshoppers leg
Why insects are marvels of engineering - BBC News

Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona
"Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 7 by coffee_addict, posted 12-27-2018 10:25 AM coffee_addict has not replied

  
Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 284 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


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Message 9 of 37 (846079)
12-27-2018 4:01 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by coffee_addict
12-26-2018 5:35 PM


Well, how would it work? You'd have to have a bit of the animal that would be separate, detached from the other bits. But then how would that bit get nutrients and oxygen?
Also what good would it be? Most terrain is unsuitable for wheels. That's why we build roads.
Also, what would it evolve from? If you're talking about "animals we can pet and cuddle with", that would be vertebrates, right? Well, where are the potential precursors to a wheel in vertebrate anatomy? How would they replace legs?

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frako
Member (Idle past 305 days)
Posts: 2932
From: slovenija
Joined: 09-04-2010


(1)
Message 10 of 37 (846084)
12-28-2018 8:12 AM
Reply to: Message 7 by coffee_addict
12-27-2018 10:25 AM


Because its a bad idea, you need roads and level sturdy terrain for wheels to fully deliver their potential. You would need heavy regeneration abilities on your wheels, because of tare out doing bends, cars have heavy duty rubber wheels, reinforced whit steel wire and you still need to switch them out, how well do you think skin or bone would fair. Then there is the whole problem of how do you keep the wheeles supplied with blood, any vains would just tare out after one spin.....

Christianity, One woman's lie about an affair that got seriously out of hand
What are the Christians gonna do to me ..... Forgive me, good luck with that.

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edge
Member (Idle past 1706 days)
Posts: 4696
From: Colorado, USA
Joined: 01-09-2002


Message 11 of 37 (846088)
12-28-2018 11:18 AM
Reply to: Message 10 by frako
12-28-2018 8:12 AM


Because its a bad idea, you need roads and level sturdy terrain for wheels to fully deliver their potential.
Reminds me of Papua New Guinea even in recent history. The terrain is so steep and mountainous that the wheel was never widely adopted. All communication and travel was based on narrow footpaths so there was very little trade between villages to the extent that each village developed it's own language.

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AnswersInGenitals
Member (Idle past 150 days)
Posts: 673
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 12 of 37 (846097)
12-28-2018 2:28 PM
Reply to: Message 7 by coffee_addict
12-27-2018 10:25 AM


Dictyostelium discoideum
I'm talking about animals we can pet and cuddle with.
Dictyostelium discoideum (AKA slime mold). Cute and cuddly is in the eye of the beholder. Dictyostelium discoideum can aggregate and move around like a tank tread.
Birds, Bats, flying insects don't have propellers, but when is the last time you saw an airplane alight on a tree twig or electric wire?
Saurischian dinosaurs have an axle-in-casing hip joint structure - the legs can swing front-to-back but not side-to-side or twist like our ball-in-socket hip joints. You couldn't outrun a T-Rex but you could outmaneuver him/her/it.

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AZPaul3
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Posts: 8513
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 13 of 37 (846106)
12-29-2018 12:36 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by coffee_addict
12-26-2018 5:35 PM


How come evolution never came up with the wheel and axle?
Why should it?
Are you expecting evolution to devise every conceivable answer to every conceivable issue? Good enough is good enough for evolution. Compared to wheel-and-axle solutions a pair of limbs (or many multiple pairs) were, apparently, quite sufficient a body plan that no other structure proved to be as advantageous for those clades of organisms.
So the answer may be as simple as saying a wheel-and-axle never developed because a number of more than adequate solutions had already been put into use.
Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

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RAZD
Member (Idle past 1404 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


(1)
Message 14 of 37 (846109)
12-29-2018 7:10 AM
Reply to: Message 13 by AZPaul3
12-29-2018 12:36 AM


How come evolution never came up with the wheel and axle?
Why should it?
There are axles and wheels in junkyards all over -- waste product of human existence. They didn't appear by spontaneous creation.
We count the beginning of life by the waste product of stromatolites ....
Enjoy
Edited by RAZD, : food for thought

we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
RebelAmerican☆Zen☯Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.


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AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8513
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 15 of 37 (846113)
12-29-2018 9:17 AM
Reply to: Message 14 by RAZD
12-29-2018 7:10 AM


So, humans made wheel/axle, humans are a product of evolution, therefore evolution made wheel/axle.
Sure. Not quite what the discussion was about but ok. Why not.
Edited by AZPaul3, : with a pinch of salt.

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