Does the more legs an animal has, the more perfect it is?

Recently I saw an interesting topic: "Why do most reptiles or mammals we see in daily life, such as pigs, dogs, horses, etc., generally evolve into four legs? If we add a leg in front and back, will we run more efficiently, or have four legs in the back and two legs in the front? For example, if we have four legs like tables and chairs, will we stand more stably? So, why did these animals evolve into four limbs instead of five, six, seven or eight limbs?"

Let’s talk about this issue today. First, we will solve a few problems and then solve the why.

01. The average number of legs animals have is 4?

Do animals generally have four legs? This is of course wrong. This is because we have a misunderstanding of animals. In fact, there are quite a lot of animals, such as birds flying in the sky, fish swimming in the water, insects crawling on land, and clams that like to burrow in the sand. These are all animals, so when you see this concept, you should first think about the premise.

For example, the first phylum of the animal kingdom is the phylum Arthropoda, and the first class under it, the class Insecta, is the most common in the animal kingdom.

02 , advanced animals?

This is still a bit problematic. You think humans are superior because you are human. On the contrary, the turtle in the water may think that it is the best in the world.

I remember when Huang Bo was interviewed and asked whether he would replace Ge You, he said something very wonderful: This era will not stop you from shining, but you cannot cover up anyone else's brilliance.

This statement also applies to the biological world.

This world will not stop you from shining, but you can't cover up the brilliance of any creature. Eagles fly in the sky, fish swim in the shallows, and all sounds in the frosty sky compete for freedom. This is the world of diversity.

After solving the above two problems, we turn our attention to the limited mammals. Mammals are indeed limited, with only a few thousand species, which is negligible compared to the millions of insects. But after all, they are the most common.

03. Why do most mammals have four legs?

Why do mammals generally have four legs? The answer is simple: because their ancestors had four legs.

Anyone who has studied high school biology must remember a very interesting term called the founder effect , also known as the founder effect or the founder effect. This effect is used to interpret the distribution of gene frequencies.

For example, why do most Chinese people not have body odor, while most foreigners do? In fact, it is the founder effect. Since the ancestor did not have body odor, naturally most of his descendants do not have body odor either.

Although this is a genetic concept, it also makes sense in biology. That is, the morphology of ancestors has a crucial impact on descendants. For example, why do we have one spine instead of two? Because our earliest ancestors had one spine...

Look at the picture below and you will know that when we start as fish, we are destined to have four legs...

Seeing this, some people will definitely say: Is Darwin's theory of evolution wrong?

04. Is Darwin’s theory of evolution wrong?

Darwin's theory of evolution is certainly correct. It is just constantly being updated and supplemented. The four core words of Darwin's theory of evolution are still correct: survival of the fittest .

Many people have misunderstood the theory of evolution, because in Chinese, "进" means "forward and upward", so we mistakenly think that the theory of evolution is the same, getting better and better. This is wrong. It would have been better if it had been translated as "theory of evolution without direction". No matter what: survival of the fittest is not survival of the best! As long as you can adapt to this world and the environment is not extremely harsh, then you can survive.

Four legs are an advantage? Six legs are bad? Wouldn't it be better to have legs all over the body? The triangle is also very stable... So trying to interpret it with the advantage of four legs is obviously a disadvantage, otherwise you can't face a large number of six-legged insects and creatures without legs.

Finally, in fact, most mutations are neutral. To be less precise, most traits are also neutral. For example, the average height of an adult is 1.55-1.8 meters. Can you say which height is the best? Which one would you choose, 1.6 meters or 1.8 meters?

Of course, choose the rich one. If you always choose the poor one, you will be eliminated in the long river of history.