# Were there ever any 6-limbed animals other than insects? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2016, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521 "2016-05-11T02:53:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/41 "2016-05-12T13:00:29Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > I, too, have never heard, read, or otherwise encountered “algar” as the singular of algae - only alga. It’s a bunch of darn foreigners who can’t speak English, confusing honest Americans with their silly dead languages! I’m sure I misremember the spelling. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/42 "2016-05-12T13:48:03Z")
**Northern** , you might enjoy taking a look at [fossils from BC’s Burgess Shale](http://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/en/fossil-gallery/index.php). There are all sorts of weird and wonderful phyla there with a range of body configurations. Now, I don’t know if any of them have six legs, but if you’re looking for a range of architectures that once populated the earth, it’s really cool! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/43 "2016-05-12T14:04:04Z")
Stephen J Gould wrote about the Burgess shale, and was a proponent of punctuated equilibrium. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/44 "2016-05-12T14:23:03Z")
[HIJACK] **carnivorous** , I learned about Burgess Shale through that book by Gould. ([Wonderful Life](https://www.amazon.ca/Wonderful-Life-Burgess-Nature-History/dp/039330700X), for those interested.) As it was written quite a while ago, is it still relevant? If not, is there another treatment of the subject that brings current knowledge up to date? [/HIJACK] ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/45 "2016-05-12T14:51:38Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > No fish, even the most primitive ones, have ever had more than two sets of paired fins, which are the kind of fins from which the limbs of terrestrial vertebrates evolved. > > Fish have medial fins along the midline of the body, usually one or two dorsal fins, a tail fin, and an anal fin, but these are unpaired and have not evolved into limbs. > > In some vertebrates, such as some monkeys and other climbing animals and kangaroos, the tail has functionally evolved into a fifth limb, but that’s as far as it goes. > [@Chronos](#): > > And don’t forget, even a few where the nose has evolved into a fifth limb. So, if you crossed an elephant and a monkey, you could get a six-limbed mammal? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/46 "2016-05-12T14:56:01Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > So, if you crossed an elephant and a monkey, you could get a six-limbed mammal? 🙂 No, you get elephant_monkey_sin(theta). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/47 "2016-05-12T15:36:42Z")
> [@D18](#): > > [HIJACK] > > **carnivorous** , I learned about Burgess Shale through that book by Gould. ([Wonderful Life](https://www.amazon.ca/Wonderful-Life-Burgess-Nature-History/dp/039330700X), for those interested.) As it was written quite a while ago, is it still relevant? Yes and no. Gould covers a lot of the finds well, but he shoehorns everything into his extreme catastrophism paradigm. It seems to be current opinion that most of the Burgess fauna belong as stem members to existing phyla, not Gould’s wholly extinct “problematica”. Also, there have been more Lagerstätten discovered and worked on since then, which have served to show that elements of the Burgess fauna was more widespread. > [@](#): > > If not, is there another treatment of the subject that brings current knowledge up to date? > [/HIJACK] While i personally find him a little problematic (in how thirsty he is to reconcile evolution and religion) Simon Conway Morris is probably the leading expert on the Burgess, and his _The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals_ is a rebuttal to Gould but also a good overview. Still a little dated, I’m sure, and the end bits that argue for the inevitability of human evolution (or something like us) vs Gould’s championing of the enormous luck involved in our existence didn’t sit as well with me. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/48 "2016-05-12T16:41:27Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > So, if you crossed an elephant and a monkey, you could get a six-limbed mammal? 🙂 Don’t cross an elephant; they have long memories. Also, don’t cross a monkey; they throw poop. Very bad combination. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/49 "2016-05-13T12:19:09Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Don’t cross an elephant; they have long memories. Also, don’t cross a monkey; they throw poop. Very bad combination. 🙂 A four armed monkey would be really really bad! eww. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/50 "2016-05-13T12:45:47Z")
Wait; tails and trunks count as _limbs_? So, how are most insects six-limbed? _Wings_ should also count, right? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/51 "2016-05-13T12:49:50Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > Wait; tails and trunks count as _limbs_? So, how are most insects six-limbed? _Wings_ should also count, right? Flying Monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/52 "2016-05-13T13:29:53Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > Wait; tails and trunks count as _limbs_? So, how are most insects six-limbed? _Wings_ should also count, right? See post #24. Wings count if they are jointed. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/53 "2016-05-13T13:53:21Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > See post #24. Wings count if they are jointed. Earwigs? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/54 "2016-05-13T14:14:27Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > Earwigs? Their wings aren’t jointed. Folded (like fuckin’ origami!) but not jointed. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/55 "2016-05-13T15:19:45Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Their wings aren’t jointed. Folded (like fuckin’ origami!) but not jointed. Isn’t this a pretty lame distinction, though? They can certainly fold and unfold them at will. And where are the joints in the elephant’s trunk or the octopus’/squid’s tentacles? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/56 "2016-05-13T15:25:45Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > Isn’t this a pretty lame distinction, though? They can certainly fold and unfold them at will. And where are the joints in the elephant’s trunk or the octopus’/squid’s tentacles? I believe that a limb must have an elbow to qualify as arms or legs. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/57 "2016-05-13T15:32:50Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > No idea, but I was just reminded to not Google for “sextaped”. BAHA! Also avoid ‘unitard.’ ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/58 "2016-05-13T15:43:31Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I believe that a limb must have an elbow to qualify as arms or legs. Well, we are talking about an extended definition of “limb”. Previous posters seem to accept trunks and tentacles as such, neither of which possesses an elbow. I agree that they are, to some degree, the functional equivalent of limbs. But it certainly has nothing to do with skeletal structure. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/59 "2016-05-13T15:50:38Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > Well, we are talking about an extended definition of “limb”. Previous posters seem to accept trunks and tentacles as such, neither of which possesses an elbow. I agree that they are, to some degree, the functional equivalent of limbs. But it certainly has nothing to do with skeletal structure. Than a limb must have a joint? ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521/60 "2016-05-13T15:58:01Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Than a limb must have a joint? Again: what joints has an octopus? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-6-limbed-animals-other-than-insects/754521.md?page=4)