Timeline for Why do adult insects have 6 legs?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
23 events
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| Oct 14, 2017 at 16:44 | comment | added | user151841 | @bshane I disagree that this pre-supposes perfect adaptation. Rather I think we should focus on highly-preservedness. Very few members of Insecta have lost a set of legs. Why would such a body plan be highly preserved, when it has such obvious costs? It must offer broad-ranging adaptiveness. What would that be, exactly? | |
| Aug 24, 2017 at 5:57 | comment | added | Remi.b | The question is actually very related to Why don't mammals have more than 4 limbs? | |
| Nov 5, 2015 at 7:20 | vote | accept | DrZ214 | ||
| Nov 5, 2015 at 7:20 | |||||
| Oct 29, 2015 at 6:56 | history | edited | WYSIWYG | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 28, 2015 at 17:36 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackBiology/status/659423577658236929 | ||
| Oct 28, 2015 at 5:13 | history | reopened |
AliceD♦ WYSIWYG |
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| Oct 26, 2015 at 22:37 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Oct 27, 2015 at 5:23 | |||||
| Oct 26, 2015 at 13:13 | history | edited | fileunderwater | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 5, 2015 at 5:07 | history | closed |
fileunderwater Luke WYSIWYG |
Duplicate of Why do some bad traits evolve, and good ones don't? | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 15:28 | answer | added | bshane | timeline score: 7 | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 13:52 | history | edited | AliceD♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 2, 2015 at 13:42 | history | edited | AliceD♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 2, 2015 at 13:31 | answer | added | AliceD♦ | timeline score: 18 | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 10:59 | comment | added | Luke | As it stands I agree with @fileunderwater -- this is a question about evolutionary advantages. However, if you were to make this question about the various functions that insects put their "legs" to then it is no longer a "duplicate" of that question. Even if this question is closed as a duplicate, you can edit it and it can be reopened :) | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 8:08 | review | Close votes | |||
| Oct 5, 2015 at 5:07 | |||||
| Oct 2, 2015 at 7:04 | comment | added | bshane | This is a little semantically tricky, because not all insects use all of their 'legs' as 'legs', in the sense of 'a thing to walk with'. Consider the raptorial forelegs of mantises - the animal uses them to catch prey, not to walk. They are called 'legs' because of homology, not function. So if your question is 'why do insects have six things that they walk on?' then the answer is that often, they don't. In that case, there is no apparent advantage to explain. If your question is 'why six "legs"?', then the answer is 'by definition, from common descent'. | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 6:28 | comment | added | DrZ214 | @bshane No I'm not satisfied with that answer, but I edited the 1st paragraph to make it clear there is an apparent advantage. At the very least, I want to know what the middle legs of insects do...and if it's something that 4-legged critters cannot. | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 6:28 | history | edited | DrZ214 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 2, 2015 at 6:26 | comment | added | DrZ214 | @WYSIWYG hmm great point. Nevertheless, there is an apparent advantage to having 6 legs as an insect that does not seem to exist for us larger land creatures. I want to know what that is. What are those middle legs used for? | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 6:21 | comment | added | WYSIWYG | Insects are not the ancestors of higher organisms. And BTW octopus is one organism which will be a counter-example. | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 5:41 | comment | added | bshane | It seems like this question presupposes perfect adaptation. Many features of modern life-forms aren't necessarily 'better' than other possible features, but are the way they are as a result of historical chance and the constraints imposed by development. Would you be satisfied with the answer "the last common ancestor of all insects had six legs, and that worked well enough that it has been kept by most of its descendant lineages"? | |
| Oct 2, 2015 at 5:21 | review | First posts | |||
| Oct 2, 2015 at 6:01 | |||||
| Oct 2, 2015 at 5:18 | history | asked | DrZ214 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |