Do wheels every occur naturally in any life form?

Question

Do wheels every occur naturally in any life form?

Answer 1

No. How would the wheel receive food (blood vessels or sap)? How would it be moved (muscles would be stretched to breaking)? How would it be innervated?

Answer 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_snake

hah

Answer 3

No it does not exist, because, int the natural world,  locomotion is done by back and forth, or pulsating movements...

Until a scientist finds a type of insect in the dark corners of a jungle that has wheels.

Answer 4

no :S

Answer 5

depends on your definition of wheel.

i think there are rotating flagella that area attached with what could be thought of as wheels.

however, certainly not wheels for rolling on.

other than maybe tumble weeds.

Answer 6

Rotifers are a phylum of mostly freshwater microscopic animals which typically have a pair of wheel-like ciliated tuffs surrounding their mouth. The ciliated "wheels" produce a water current that moves food substances into their mouth where in the pharynx the food is chewed by "jaws." Rotifers usually attach to a surface by a pair of tiny toe-like structures. When unattached the ciliated "wheels" supply the power to move the organism through the water.

http://www.linkpublishing.com/video-cell...

One of the intriguing questions about nature is the fact that no one has yet discovered an organism that actively uses wheels or wheel-like motions to get around. Incredibly, N. decemspinosa moves across the sand by backwards somersaulting, moving as far as 2 meters at a time by rolling 20-40 times, with speeds of around 72 revolutions per minute at 1.5 body lengths per second (3.5 cm/s). Researchers estimate that the stomatopod functions as a true wheel around 40% of the time during this series of rolls, with the remaining 60% being those times when it has to "jumpstart" a roll by using its whole body as a single "leg" to thrust itself upwards and forwards. It must be a sight to see this little creature zooming along the beach and into the waiting water...

http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/bio/whee...  (see pic on link)

Bacteria invented the wheel. The bacterial flagellum is a helical structure that drives the cell through the media like a propeller. The structure is rigid and turned by a rotatory motor at the base where it connects to the bacteria's body. The rotary motor consist of several wheel-like discs one of which the M-ring (and/or possibly the S-ring) interact with the C-ring and studs to rotate the whole structure. The rotary motor is very like a stepping motor

http://www.bms.ed.ac.uk/research/others/...

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=mole... (Interesting link!)