Why do we have four limbs?

Question

Why do us mammals, and most animals actually, have four limbs? Why not more or less? Octopi have 8 limbs, why can’t I?

In: Biology

Answer 1

All mammals and probably all the animals you’re thinking it of descended from a common ancestor that had had four limbs (a lobe-finned amphibious fish, to be specific), and all are based on slight modifications of that four-limbed body plan. We call this family of life forms “tetrapods,” which in Latin means “four-footed.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapod