Are Legs a Part of Alien Biology?

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The idea of limbs, i think, has been hugely, hugely successful. Insects have so many options that they can exploit such a wide range of niches. If everyone's running around and trying to eat each other, if you've got legs, you can lift yourself off the ground,. Then then you've got a huge advantage. Many animals on earth that have lost their legs, or things like snakese theyre exploiting a very specific niche where legs wold just get in the way er.

If extraterrestrial life is out there — not just microbial slime, but big, complex, macroscopic organisms — what will they be like? Movies have trained us to think that they won’t be that different at all; they’ll even drink and play music at the same cafes that humans frequent. A bit of imagination, however, makes us wonder whether they won’t be completely alien — we have zero data about what extraterrestrial biology could be like, so it makes sense to keep an open mind. Arik Kershenbaum argues for a judicious middle ground. He points to constraints from physics and chemistry, as well as the tendency of evolution to converge toward successful designs, as reasons to think that biologically complex aliens won’t be utterly different from us after all.

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Arik Kershenbaum received his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology from the University of Haifa. He is currently College Lecturer and Director of Studies at Girton College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens — and Ourselves.

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