Dear Everyone.

F'starters, I'm NOT a scientist, or creationist, or anything-ist, it's just I've noticed this years and years agon, been searching for the reason WHY, off and on, ever since. Haven't even heard this mentioned and that's interesting in itself. Hokay, here goes!

Insects and everything going on down from there - different body shapes, lots of legs, all to fit different specialized niches. Everything ABOVE insects - the SAME TEMPLATE. Octopuses and starfish aside, EVERY SPECIES is head, torso, limb at each corner of torso. Fish, yes, stand one on its tail and it has two 'arms' - fins - two 'feet' - tail fins. Whales, dolphins, vestigial limbs inside their bodies. Yet I've never read, anywhere, WHY everything's the same basic design. Why don't you get animals with 6 limbs, say, 4 to walk on, 2 to pick things up with? And why isn't this more of a talking point, why does everyone take it for granted this IS so without wondering WHY it's so? I mean I've got Asperger's so I might be missing something obvious, but I'm not seeing it!

I mean - even dinosaurs. Do you get big dinosaurs with more than 4 limbs? Even T-Rex has vestigial arms on the top corners of his torso. Everything else I've seen - head, neck, torso, limb at each corner of torso.

Now I'm NOT trying to prove anything with this question. "See? This PROVES there must be a creator!" "See? Proof of Parallel Evolution!" - nah. I'm not doing any of that. It's just I've noticed this and was wondering if one of you geniuses could tell me why, above a certain cutoff point, everything SUDDENLY became cut from the same basic template. Octopuses and starfish have always fascinated me because they're the ONLY TWO creatures I could find above insects that are designed differently. (If I've missed any others, might well have done, tell me!) The main thing I'm puzzled about is why you don't see this talked about more, have I missed the Utterly Obvious to the Rest of Humanity Reason? If yes, Mr. Asperger's here's spent a lifetime missing Totally Obvious Things, usually to his detriment. Just tell me WHAT'S totally obvious and I'll go away.

Yours puzzledly,

Chris.

4 hours ago, ulrichburke said:

Dear Everyone.

F'starters, I'm NOT a scientist, or creationist, or anything-ist, it's just I've noticed this years and years agon, been searching for the reason WHY, off and on, ever since. Haven't even heard this mentioned and that's interesting in itself. Hokay, here goes!

Insects and everything going on down from there - different body shapes, lots of legs, all to fit different specialized niches. Everything ABOVE insects - the SAME TEMPLATE. Octopuses and starfish aside, EVERY SPECIES is head, torso, limb at each corner of torso. Fish, yes, stand one on its tail and it has two 'arms' - fins - two 'feet' - tail fins. Whales, dolphins, vestigial limbs inside their bodies. Yet I've never read, anywhere, WHY everything's the same basic design. Why don't you get animals with 6 limbs, say, 4 to walk on, 2 to pick things up with? And why isn't this more of a talking point, why does everyone take it for granted this IS so without wondering WHY it's so? I mean I've got Asperger's so I might be missing something obvious, but I'm not seeing it!

I mean - even dinosaurs. Do you get big dinosaurs with more than 4 limbs? Even T-Rex has vestigial arms on the top corners of his torso. Everything else I've seen - head, neck, torso, limb at each corner of torso.

Now I'm NOT trying to prove anything with this question. "See? This PROVES there must be a creator!" "See? Proof of Parallel Evolution!" - nah. I'm not doing any of that. It's just I've noticed this and was wondering if one of you geniuses could tell me why, above a certain cutoff point, everything SUDDENLY became cut from the same basic template. Octopuses and starfish have always fascinated me because they're the ONLY TWO creatures I could find above insects that are designed differently. (If I've missed any others, might well have done, tell me!) The main thing I'm puzzled about is why you don't see this talked about more, have I missed the Utterly Obvious to the Rest of Humanity Reason? If yes, Mr. Asperger's here's spent a lifetime missing Totally Obvious Things, usually to his detriment. Just tell me WHAT'S totally obvious and I'll go away.

Yours puzzledly,

Chris.

I suspect the key to your question is in the term "vertebrates", more strictly these days called "chordates". The common body plan you mention is due to evolution of all chordates from a common ancestor, an early fish-type thing. The legs evolved from fishy fins. Fish, amphibians, dinosaurs, modern mammals are all in the chordate family, having the same basic body plan. So that's why.

But in fact there are a lot more alternative body plans in the animal kingdom than just the chordates and the arthropods that you mention (insects, crustaceans and so forth). Both athropods and chordates are examples of a "phylum", which is a biological classification based on the basic type of body plan. A few examples of other phyla would be molluscs (shellfish, squid, octopuses etc) echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, with 5-fold radial symmetry) and annelids (segmented worms). But there a lot more besides. You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylum

It is true that all the large, land-dwelling animals are chordates, which is why you can get the impression that the majority of animals have the same body plan. But if you don't limit your consideration to size, or to dwelling on land, you get a very different picture, with a lot more variety.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by exchemist