Scarab beetles at the interface of wheel invention in nature and culture?

Abstract

In this review some examples of rolling behaviour in nature are described and discussed in terms of the realised degree of wheel-like locomotion. The combination of rotation and the use of the low friction resistance of circular and smooth surfaces to transport a heavy load, as is seen in scarab beetles rolling dung pills, is the closest degree of similarity to a wheel found in nature. Populations of dung rolling scarabs may have benefited from the early domestication of large mammals in the Middle East. I suggest that an increased opportunity to observe pill rolling scarab beetles has inspired humans to invent the wheel.