Hexapods

[GEOvanne]

I'm reading the wiki, and it says that due to pandora's lower gravity, most of the animals are hexapods.
I don't get it, I'd understand lower gravity allowing bigger, taller animals to evolve, but how does 6 legs be of any particular benefit?

[archaic]

I can't find that, can you post a link?
But, here goes anywho .....

Some of the stuff in wiki is a bit out. Six limbs would spread weight and allow animals to be bigger/heavier. So would lower gravity. But I cant see how lower gravity would result in the evolution of six limbs.
Insects are the most numerous land animals on Rrta, and they have six legs, so I fail to see the wiki contributors thinking.

[GEOvanne]

here: http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Pandora

Apparently, lower gravity makes it easier to slip while running, so six legs makes it easier to grab on (the na'vi grab the ground with their toes). But wouldn't being bigger give them the extra weight needed to get more traction?

[archaic]

Thank you for the link, but I still fail to see the thinking here. 

[Clarke]

It'd be the opposite, if anything. More limbs means less pressure per limb, meaning less friction on the surface. 

[Nyx]

It'd be the opposite, if anything. More limbs means less pressure per limb, meaning less friction on the surface. 

Imagine that on ice...

But no, I wouldn't take the wiki's exact word on most things, it seems to take some weird jumps, like in this case.

[Seze Mune]

I wonder where their information came from.  JC had lots of people working on the film and perhaps some of them consulted biologists who gave them this rationale for developing interesting alien forms.  Who knows?  Maybe it's the effect of the unobtainium on certain gene complexes? 

[Txonä Unil Stä'nìyu Rolyusì]

I know one of the admins of the Wiki, I"ll tell her about this.

-Txonä Rolyu

[Seze Mune]

Tewti!  I hope she doesn't tell you it's something in the water! HRH!

[Human No More]

It's that 6 limbs allows more contact points on the ground, which allows greater force against an uneven surface, particularly through denser air.

[Seze Mune]

It's that 6 limbs allows more contact points on the ground, which allows greater force against an uneven surface, particularly through denser air.

I'm thinking steaks.  More meat for steaks.   

[GEOvanne]

It's that 6 limbs allows more contact points on the ground, which allows greater force against an uneven surface, particularly through denser air.

Yes, but would their sizes/weight compensate for that?

[Human No More]

Not really. There's lower gravity, so less energy penalty attached to weight.

[archaic]

It is handy for climbing species, up to five points holding and still able to grab/hold something.

I'm thinking a nantang delivery service could work.

[GEOvanne]

Not really. There's lower gravity, so less energy penalty attached to weight.

Yeah, but they are bigger which makes them heavier, so it "makes up" for the weight lost to lower gravity.

[Human No More]

Not really. There's lower gravity, so less energy penalty attached to weight.

Yeah, but they are bigger which makes them heavier, so it "makes up" for the weight lost to lower gravity.

There isn't some universal 'required animal weight'. It's that they can grow larger without the same degree of problems suffered by larger Earth animals thanks to lower gravity, not that they do because their world is conducive to that and for no other reason.