# Why has no animal species ever evolved wheels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 5, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176 "2008-09-05T13:26:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Holger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Holger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Holger)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/1 "2008-09-05T13:26:53Z")
> **[Why has no animal species ever evolved wheels?](https://www.straightdope.com/21342299/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels)** Anyone else who is reminded of the _Mulefa_ from the book _The Amber Spyglass_ (3rd in the series _His Dark Materials_ by Philip Pullman)? Especially with regard to Cecil’s ultimate reason for not evolving wheels: “no interstates”. In the Mulefa’s world, there are just such interstates, created from lava by volcanic activity. OK, the Mulefa didn’t exactly evolve their own wheels, using large, round tree seeds instead. But it’s a symbiotic relationship, and the Mulefa’s anatomy has adapted to the “wheels”, so that’s close enough for me. Quite an ingenious idea by Pullman. It’s a great book series anyway. ---
**Author:** ![planeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@planeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planeman)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/2 "2008-09-05T18:55:32Z")
The reason no animal has evolved wheels is no animal tissue can deal with continuous revolving. It must stay connected to the body with nerves and blood vessels which have no way of coping with revolving motion other than twisting and they can only take a very limited amount of that. Ponder on it. Planeman ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/3 "2008-09-05T19:06:46Z")
Hoop snake!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/4 "2008-09-05T19:11:01Z")
Isn’t there some desert spider that uses it’s legs like spokes, to propel it along? I’m sure I saw it on a wildlife program once. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/5 "2008-09-05T19:50:45Z")
> [@planeman](#): > > The reason no animal has evolved wheels is no animal tissue can deal with continuous revolving. It must stay connected to the body with nerves and blood vessels which have no way of coping with revolving motion other than twisting and they can only take a very limited amount of that. Ponder on it. Actually, the matter is more complicated than you would think, as developed in previous threads. However, the Search feature here seems still to be _hors de combat_. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/6 "2008-09-06T08:41:52Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > However, the Search feature here seems still to be _hors de combat_. You mean the wheels have come off. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/7 "2008-09-06T09:51:28Z")
Well, not exactly a wheel, but at least some form of axle has evolved – the bacterial [flagellum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagella). Slap something round on it instead of a whip, and you’d have a wheel, essentially. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/8 "2008-09-06T10:07:21Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Well, not exactly a wheel, but at least some form of axle has evolved – the bacterial [flagellum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagella). Slap something round on it instead of a whip, and you’d have a wheel, essentially. Which, as I now see, was mentioned in the original article. :rolleyes: Three cheers for redundancy! Yay for redundancy! Yay for redundancy! Yay for redundancy! ---
**Author:** ![royboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f08c70/32.png) [@royboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/royboy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/9 "2008-09-06T12:06:05Z")
[quote=“Holger, post:1, topic:462176”] > **[Why has no animal species ever evolved wheels?](https://www.straightdope.com/21342299/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels)** Ah, but we have evidence of a wheel-type creature (although no axle). M.C. Escher depicted, and described this, at [http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/back-bmp/LW374.jpg](http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/back-bmp/LW374.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/10 "2008-09-07T00:59:24Z")
Either Omni or Discover had a great article The Rat With Retractable Rollerskates. It dealt with the objection that nerves and veins would get tangled by postulating wheels of horn. The conclusion of the article was that there were not enough environments suited to wheels, thus no advantage to having them. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/11 "2008-09-07T01:25:38Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > It dealt with the objection that nerves and veins would get tangled by postulating wheels of horn. How were they driven? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/12 "2008-09-07T01:30:16Z")
I don’t remember. I read the article at least fifteen years ago. It’s astounding I retain any memory of it at all. ---
**Author:** ![irspariah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/35a633/32.png) [@irspariah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irspariah)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/13 "2008-09-07T16:20:55Z")
> [@Holger](#): > > [Why has no animal species ever evolved wheels? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1151/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels) > > Anyone else who is reminded of the _Mulefa_ from the book _The Amber Spyglass_ (3rd in the series _His Dark Materials_ by Philip Pullman)? Especially with regard to Cecil’s ultimate reason for not evolving wheels: “no interstates”. In the Mulefa’s world, there are just such interstates, created from lava by volcanic activity. > > OK, the Mulefa didn’t exactly evolve their own wheels, using large, round tree seeds instead. But it’s a symbiotic relationship, and the Mulefa’s anatomy has adapted to the “wheels”, so that’s close enough for me. > > Quite an ingenious idea by Pullman. It’s a great book series anyway. Legs can negotiate potholes far better than wheels. (IMHO) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/14 "2008-09-07T16:24:41Z")
There were no treadmills. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/15 "2008-09-08T15:29:32Z")
I’d have to go with “What’s the great advantage in having wheels”? Most of the reasons they’re useful for us can’t be applied simply to nature: e.g. It’s hard to engineer a machine that balances on legs – but in nature balancing on legs happened long after the limb design and brains with complex control mechanisms had been established, so that cost is pretty much irrelevant. Perhaps limbs are just the way things panned out here on Earth. So, on another world, perhaps early life might evolve a wheel-like flagellum and subsequently complex multicellular life might evolve with many variations on the wheel design, instead of many variations of the limb design. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/16 "2008-09-08T15:40:58Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > How were they driven? I haven’t read the article in question, but could they not be powered by limbs, like the way a human drives a wheelchair? ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/17 "2008-09-08T16:49:03Z")
Simplicity of wheel is misleading. Effective wheeled movement requires actually a lot of quite complex mechanisms. The wheel itself - need to be round enough, durable and with good traction. And you need at least three of them. Axle/bearing - probably hardest part to evolve. Impossible to be made without some kind of tissue discontinuity [solutions: wheels are dead tissue (but can’t regrow if damaged); chassis is dead tissue (and wheels itself are alive, a’la rolling coral colony); wheels and chassis are alive, but separate (although symbiotic) organisms. Power - you need to make them roll. There is not much ways to make it effective. Maybe some kind of pusher parapodia. Or, in case of living wheels, contractions of muscles making them to change their shape in a kind of rotating wave. Brakes - you don’t want to uncontrollably roll down any slightest slope. Might be alternate function of power mechanism. Steering - either by differentiation between left side/right side wheels (hard to do with separate living wheels) or changing wheel direction (hard to do with dead tissue chassis). Also ecosystem - you need mostly flat terrain without any kind of ridges. Dry riverbed is end of road for wheeled animals, but only minor obstacle for legged ones. You need to evolve all of the above at the same time, all while outcompeting legged animals. Impossible? Probably no. But certainly very, very, very improbable. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/18 "2008-09-08T17:10:09Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Isn’t there some desert spider that uses it’s legs like spokes, to propel it along? I’m sure I saw it on a wildlife program once. I saw a show about the Kalahari ecosystem. There were spiders that roll down dunes like a wheel, then scurry off in the normal fashion. Let me be the first to reference Harlan Ellison’s story “I’m looking for Kadak”. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/19 "2008-09-08T18:30:31Z")
> [@puppygod](#): > > Impossible to be made without some kind of tissue discontinuity Actually, this is not necessarily true. But the Search feature is still broken, so I can’t find the thread where this was discussed in full a year or two back. ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176/20 "2008-09-09T09:35:12Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Actually, this is not necessarily true. But the Search feature is still broken, so I can’t find the thread where this was discussed in full a year or two back. Interesting. Do you remember what was proposed as a solution? Maybe some kind of fluid exchange through sealed axis? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-no-animal-species-ever-evolved-wheels/462176.md?page=2)