[eli5] Why do insects have lots of legs while larger animals have 4 or 2? Also, why aren’t there any animals (that I know of) with 3 legs?

Question

[eli5] Why do insects have lots of legs while larger animals have 4 or 2? Also, why aren’t there any animals (that I know of) with 3 legs?

In: 381

Answer 1

Fun aside for you OP, the anime “A Centaur’s Life” is set in a universe where all mammals evolved from a common ancestor with 6 limbs instead of 4. So people are centaurs, winged humans and such.

In the show they actually ponder how the world would be different if their mammal ancestor had 4 legs, like ours. Their conclusions are entertainingly wrong.