Which Leg Count Is Best?

'What is the best amount of legs?' is a question you may have asked yourself. Most likely not. But the number of legs a species has is crucial to survival, so it's time to determine which number is the most advantageous. To study every option for leg count that nature provides for the current entry into the archive, we will exclude occurrences of genetic mutation or limb loss. This is a subject you need to have the answer to, regardless of whether you're about to reincarnate or a worldbuilder trying to make an alien lifeform seem more realistic.

I'll start by talking about life forms that only have one leg. Nature doesn't give a damn what you think; you might not suppose that any creature has a single leg as its default configuration. Many clams, as well as oysters, drag themselves along with just one strong limb. Their relatives, the gastropods, which include snails and slugs, also take a daring stance. The bottom of one of these slimy creatures is a single, enormous foot, which they gently ungulate to move ahead, despite how it may appear. Snails continually lubricate their bottoms with mucus, which enables them to overcome friction. However, this is the only manner in which this even slightly functions, as most species move at a blistering one millimeter per second. However, you would only travel a little if your primary means of propulsion consisted of shoving your feet forward while drenching your shoes with oil. As nothing faster beyond a leaf might overtake them, most creatures in this group are *herbivores. Although the laws of physics dictate that any single-limbed species will most likely struggle with uneven terrain, perhaps on another planet, a lifeform could evolve to hop about on one leg at more incredible speeds. However, any lineage that said "I'm good, thanks" to animals with many legs when they came onto land is pretty hard-core.

The second alternative is two legs, which has significant advantages and downsides when it involves things like. Maintaining balance. Since most two-legged species descended from four-legged species, their previous front limbs are now available for bizarre uses. Birds are an enormously successful two-legged species whose forelimbs developed into wings, enabling them to soar through the skies in a way that almost feels like cheating. It's unfair that they hardly even utilize their legs. But not all birds choose the simple path. With us on land, enormous flightless creatures like ostriches and penguins don't precisely strut, but they try their best. Penguins' forelimbs have developed into flippers rather than wings to increase their speed in the water, but less on land. But a two-legged animal can also use its front limbs in other ways besides wings and flippers. Grabby hands are an evolutionary adaptation that primates use in various creative ways, including snagging food, swinging from branches, and cleaning their own or other people's fur.

It should be noted that not every Primate supports Team Two-Legs wholeheartedly. For instance, great apes frequently adopt a semi-quadrupedal stance called "knuckle walking." In actuality, many animals only change to two legs when it's fashionable. Bears usually move about on all fours, although they occasionally stand up straight on their hind legs to climb trees or look more extensive. When looking for danger, meerkats move to two legs; the extra height gives the on-guard watchers a greater perspective. However, let's focus on the genuine adherents of the two-leg doctrine: people. Although we don't have the best stability initially, a mature human has a much higher sense of balance. A human's flexibility on two legs can get somewhat absurd with practice. We may begin by moving on all fours, and like primates, we can still do so if we choose, but this is far from being as quick as converting to a two-legged stance and running at full speed. Our front limbs are now sophisticated instruments for connecting with the outside world and demonstrating to other creatures how superior we are since they are no longer required to support our bodies. Many aliens depicted in media have bipedal body designs primarily because many aliens are actors wearing inexpensive costumes. Though they most likely wouldn't resemble us, two-legged life might develop on distant planets. Despite some drawbacks, such as back pain, the two-leg arrangement is a serious candidate for the top slot.

Now that we have three legs, there is already an issue. Since, after all, no animal has three legs. It isn't straightforward, I guess. The tripod fish is a deep-sea resident that uses three 'legs' made of long fins to stand on the sand. Whether these fins should be considered legs is controversial because it's tough to define a leg. According to most scientific definitions, a leg is any limb specifically for walking and supporting the body. Surprisingly, by this definition, kangaroos are an additional creature that is occasionally classified as having three legs, as when they are not hopping around, their tails serve as third legs that keep them upright. As this video goes on, it will become increasingly unclear what constitutes a leg, but it is already apparent that there are more common configurations than three legs. No early land animals emerged from the sea with three limbs, which may have something to do with the mechanics of walking, but evolution may have followed a different course in an alternate history.

Four legs are a safe choice for creatures opposed to deviating from the norm, nevertheless. This is usually the default number of legs you have in mind when you think of land animals on Earth, and for a good reason. A four-legged configuration ensures structural stability, which enables growth into a living flagpole in response to evolutionary stresses. Animals with four legs are great off-roaders because they can navigate challenging terrain. The fastest land mammals belong to this category because they have the best running gaits. Anything is good on four legs. However, reptiles had four legs from dawn, long before mammals joined in on the fun. Kangaroos are a different species with four legs; are they also present here? They occasionally walk on all fours, but can they move on two, three, and four legs? Oh, I'll let it go. I suppose. The only real drawback to having four legs and no arms is how difficult it is to pick things up. Unless you're an elephant, an animal that defies all conventions by developing lengthy, muscular appendages from its snoots. Elephants probably just chuckle when they see other species that have to decide between having the ability to pick things up and growing to enormous sizes. In comparison to the complete human body, an elephant's trunk has more than 48,000 individual muscles, which, to be honest, feels a little bit like they're rubbing things in. Overall, having four legs is a fantastic fundamental option and probably would be on any planet.

The classification would be empty if not for a group of anomalies with stars for legs, which are far less common. Most starfish species have five limbs, which somewhat stray from the concept of a "leg" because the countless tube-like feet below each limb provide the ability to move around the sea floor. As a result of starfish's refusal to fit into the mold of other organisms, its appendages are variously referred to as legs, arms, and rays. The kangaroo is the other potential five-legged creature. Kangaroos, yet again? Oh, I guess they utilize all five occasionally — no, that's not right. I don't care if science supports their claims. Kangaroos are categorically excluded.

Changing to six legs - no, I'm kidding. We don't want to hold off on another category. Because they are so near the ground, it is simple to ignore that many creatures have no legs. The most well-known group in this classification is arguably snakes, which move by pushing their scales on the ground with their muscles. Snakes, as well as other legless lizards, gave up their appendages for a good cause, even though it may sound excruciatingly painful. Their limbless bodies are ideally suited for sliding into tunnels and around awkward corners in pursuit of prey. Without legs, worms manage fine by contracting and relaxing different body parts to move. Fish are also considered legless creatures since they can only move about the aquatic world using their fins, except for rebels like the Flying Gurnard, who 'walk' along the ocean floor utilizing modified pelvic fins.

Additionally, some marine species, such as coral and anemones, can live their entire lives in one location, consuming tiny aquatic invertebrates and behaving more like plants than animals. Numerous species may be considered "sessile," or fixed in one location, and should be included in their own bonus category. It's simple to pass judgment, but might you be in a rush to be anywhere if you could spend the entire day sitting on a rock and bring meals to you?

Okay, let's go back to the six legs this time. Although it might not seem popular, it is the most common category. Since most insects have six legs, and approximately 10 quintillion of them are on the Earth, they frequently go unnoticed by the giant creatures they considerably outnumber. Insects may move while always keeping a sturdy tripod because of the wonderfully adaptable six legs. It seems incredibly unjust that some animals didn't even have to give up a pair of limbs for flying because they evolved wings from ancient gill-like appendages. And some insects have become rather inventive because they have so many extra appendages. The closest thing life on Earth has to a centaur's body plan is the praying mantis, which has evolved its front limbs into grasping appendages while preserving its four rear legs on the ground. There are some creative ideas for intelligent extraterrestrials with similar anatomy, and this design seems to have a lot of theoretical possibilities. Although no substantial six-legged animals are on our planet, insects' extraordinary success raises the possibility that such a body layout has significant advantages.

Except for the Seven-Arm Octopus, which keeps one of its eight tentacles needed for fertilization retracted in a sac beneath its right eye, the Seven-Leg category has almost no applicants. It feels a little bit like cheating, but I'll overlook it. Particular starfish may also have seven legs, depending on how you define seven. You may have observed that most creatures have an even number of legs, whereas very few have an odd number. Bilateral symmetry, or the propensity for an animal's right and left halves to be roughly mirror images, has something to do with this. This pattern is probably caused by species with bilateral symmetry moving faster and more directly than those with radial symmetry, such as starfish, whose absence of a definite front or rear makes traveling in a straight line more difficult. The best opportunity for an odd-legged organism to make it big is presumably if a radially symmetrical lifeform later developed bilateral symmetry, which appears to be where the seven-limbed aliens in Arrival came from.

Returning to even numbers, the arachnids, the calm older siblings of insects, have eight legs. Spiders and tarantulas, most of which have modified their eight legs into all-terrain web-climbing machines, are the poster creatures for this group. Some people might believe that an arachnid's legs are overkill, but when they see us, they might think we are woefully unprepared. The octopus, which typically has eight multipurpose tentacles that can move it across the ocean floor and serve as arms, is the other well-known eight-legged candidate. According to some who claim this makes it technically biped, the octopus will occasionally only utilize two tentacles to move through the sand. However, it depends on the species, and there's a good argument that an octopus' tentacles qualify as both arms and legs. Demonstrating that an octopus cannot be placed inside a box since it will flow out again. Because they have eight legs each, octopuses and spiders have been found to function just fine without any of their limbs.

The Nine-Rayed Starfish and the extremely rare nine-armed octopus are the closest rivals for the unpopular odd-number category of nine legs. However, the additional limb in the latter only develops when a severed tentacle regrows as two. As we enter the realm of crustaceans, though, things start to get out of hand with ten legs. With ten legs accessible, which are present in many kinds of lobster and prawns, strange things can happen. Crabs are crustaceans that have followed in the footsteps of centaurs by raising their front limbs off the ground to act as pinchers. Because they have ten limbs to work with, some crabs have even converted their back legs into flippers so they can "swim." And as we all know, the crab model is a favorite of evolution, as many other crustaceans have adopted it, giving rise to various 'fake crab' lineages that enviously mimic the crabs' successful strategy. Even while having extra legs isn't always a good thing, the astounding prevalence of crustaceans raises the possibility that life on future planets may consist of many crabs.

We move into a black hole of ever-increasing numbers once we pass the ten-legged event horizon. Massive isopods from the deep water have a mind-boggling fourteen legs. Caterpillars often have sixteen legs in total, with six essential limbs in the front and several rows of pseudo-feet to assist in moving their long bodies. The number of legs on a centipede can range from sixteen to more than one hundred, and certain millipedes can have even more than that. And the Eumillipes Persephone, which has an astounding 1,030-plus legs overall, is the species with the most legs overall. Although a staggering figure, such a count is only necessary to enable the species to break through the Earth below the surface and would be wildly unfeasible for the bulk of life on the planet.

What, then, is the solution? It depends. And yes, I see that's not the most entertaining response, but I assure you it's right. There are a few standouts, but the arbitrary selection of the winner based on the number of legs—two, six, or ten—would neglect the intricacy of nature. But if there's one thing we've discovered, it's that nature has an astounding range of variation in the number of limbs; if you ever create a lifeform, know that you have a lot of flexibility regarding total limbs. Ultimately, we ought to try to value each animal's number of legs, except for kangaroos.