Why dont animals have wheels based on article by Richard Dawkins

1. 9/27/2015
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WHY DON’T ANY ANIMALS
HAVE WHEELS??

2. What
Why
• A circular object that revolves on an
axle. Part of a whole but exists
independently of it and can spin
indefinitely in one direction without
having to wind itself back again
• Wheels give mechanical advantage to
the users allowing them to move heavy
things more easily.
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W
H
E
E
L
S

3. Whenever humans have a good idea, zoologists
have grown accustomed to finding it
anticipated in the animal kingdom.. Why not
the wheel?
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4. M
U
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A
T
I
O
N
A
N
D
R
E
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Y
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• Bats and dolphins perfected
sophisticated echo-ranging systems
millions of years before human
engineers gave us sonar and radar.
• Snakes have infra-red heat detectors for
sensing prey, long pre-dating the
Sidewinder missile.
• Fishes have independently developed
the electric battery
• Squids have jet propulsion, enabling
them break the surface at 45m.p.h. and
shoot through the air

5. M
U
T
A
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I
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N
A
N
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Y
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• Mole crickets have the megaphone,
digging a double horn in the ground to
amplify their already astonishingly loud
song.
• Beavers have the dam, flooding a
private lake for their own safe-conduct
over water.
• And many more…

6. EXAMPLES
• WHEEL SPIDER
• DUNG BEATLE
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7. Wheels are
over
rated!!
• It is dependent for maximum efficiency
on a prior invention – the road
• A car’s powerful engine enables it to
beat a horse or a dog or a cheetah on a
hard, flat road, or smooth, iron rails. But
run the race over wild country or
ploughed fields, perhaps with hedges or
ditches in the way, and it is a rout: the
horse will leave the car wallowing.
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8. Why haven’t
animals
developed
the road?
• Roads are not selfish - If I as an
individual build a good road from A to B,
you may benefit from the road just as
much as I do.
• A borrow, a dam by beaver, a nest etc.
are used for their own benefit
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9. Thank you
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FOR LISTENING