Why isn't there any animals with wheels?

You're right user, if it were a perfect incline you could just stand perpendicular to the decline. But let's say you're climbing a hill, or walking up a pile, or you are in a pit. These are all common things that could happen to a terrestrial animal because terrestrial animals live on variable terrain. So in order to climb a mountain or get out of a gorge they'd need to ascend in a "sidestepping" manner.

Is there anything wrong with sidestepping with wheels in order to go up/down? One thing that comes to mind is that now you require strong joints to move your legs in a weird fashion. Humans have ball and socket joints on their hips to allow us to extend our legs forward and back easily, but not to the side. The new wheel animal would require 360 degree ball and socket joints, in my opinion, in order to be good at

1) Going forward and backward using the wheels
and
2) Traversing variable terrain by sidestepping, so it needs to be able to move left and right very easily without a lot of energy

Flat surfaces with anything interesting for an animal are quite recent, this eco niche is so new that wheels haven't had time to evolve yet

Or! Just walk in a fishbone pattern like people do with skis.

That doesn't solve the problem of spending more energy. If the angle between the gradient and the wheel isn't 90 degrees, you will be spending extra energy to stay on an incline. If you had a flat paw, you have more surface area and therefore more friction available to keep you on that incline

Somewhat defeats the point of having wheels if you're gonna do that

If you ignore movement downhill maybe.

frictional force is independent of surface area

Yes but things don't evolve only to minimize energy expenditure.

What?

>animals with gears
L0Lno fgt pls

Lrn2en-premiére fgt pls

youtube.com/watch?v=Q8fyUOxD2EA

There was an episode of Andy Richter Controls The Universe where he had wheels.

>gears claimed
>no gears displayed
yahh riiight

>things don't evolve only to minimize energy expenditure.
t. brainlet

>what are mulefa

animals can roll. Not sure that's a wheel, without an axle an shit.

What is a "parking brake?"

And of course a wheel cannot be turned sideways either.

Communal organism? Build a wheel like army ants build a bivouac, but more so.

If minimizing energy expenditure was the over-riding "goal" of evolution, we'd all still be sponges.

Sometimes you gotta spend money to make money. Using energy more profligately in order to get to the next energy source before Slowbro might be a winning strategy.

How semantic are we being here? Wheels do exist on the cellular level, macroscopic limb wheels are way less control/require more energy than limbs

we have mini wheels does that count

>How would the wheel get any blood supply or heal when damaged if it's disconnected from the rest of the body?

Maybe the same way nutrients andO2 get from blood cells to other tissues, even though the blood cells are not attached to the cells in the rest of the boy.

Especially for a low-energy, slow-rolling wheeled critter, that might work.

The Siberian Monorail-sloth maybe.

Can someone explain how an axle would actually work for an organism?

Those pivot rather than rotate like a wheel.

If your definition is loose enough a wheel that only turns

The roadrunner's (Accelleratii Incredibus) lower half actually transforms into a spinning wheel when he reaches top speed, as does the coyote (Eatibus Anythingus) under certain conditions.

Cool as fuck.

I think, in context, we're talking locomotion-related wheels, not just rotating structures.

communal...

Are specific names of cartoons capitalized?

There's at least one species that we know of that has wheels

No an actual organism not some communal shit, fuck off with your moving goalposts

10/10
Yea i figured. The real question is why would wheels be advantageous for an organism, over limbs. Wheels are much more limited than limbs in terms of the terrain they can transverse, especially with shit like plants everywhere. Id imagine it would be much more possible from an evolution standpoint if some organism evolved in a completely flat area, but that doesnt exist.
Another thing is low surface area contact between a wheel and the ground, compared with limbs. I feel that would be a factor

A wheel cant be self contained like a limb.

As in what does the wheel spin around and how does the wheel connect to the rest of the body? How would you get resources to the wheel tissues, and how would you protect the bearing from infection.

Doesnt even seem remotely possible to me

Yeah but that was in response to the implication that there are no animals with gears. Clearly there are.

There are. They're called humans.

>Why isn't there any animals with wheels?
Because wheels are great on smooth roads, and shit in dense wilderness. They trade efficiency for flexibility and reliability.

>tfw no mulefa gf

Some jumping insects employ gears in their legs.

...

Then anything I can think of is going to have to roll VERY slowly.

>Wheel tissue
Nonliving matter for the wheels. like horn?

>Protect from friction
Animules are good at making oil

Maybe so, but having to walk in such a way is so beyond wasteful that all the animals who potentially developed such a limb barely reproduced even if they survived.

What if the entire planet was downhill tho

What, are you stoned?

No, I'm a man. Only women get stoned.

and only brainlets make sweeping generalizations.

They stone homos too I think

That gay fag from YouTube was right, the cars from the Cars movie are futuristic insects!

>he said, making a sweeping generalization

He did by making us amirite?

(that's the joke)

>I was merely pretending
Sure thing, champ. ;^)

keep replying

>he said, desperately trying to get the last word in to salvage some sense of dignity

This. Legs enable better control, also jumping and vertical movement is important too for land and sea animals.

I meant creatures not animals.