Why do some animal breeds have individual personality, while other all look the same?

Question

For example:

Cats - They all look different
Dragon Flies - They all look different

Squirrels - All look the same
Ants - All look the same

Answer 1

It's related to the things that we're used to looking at in humans.

We can all distinguish humans really well. This makes sense, frmo an evolutionary point of view. The more human-like animals are, the better we are at distinguishing them. Apes look quite different to us. Animals like cats and dogs, with eyes that are more expressive to us and reactions that are sort of like our own, are easier to tell.

Squirrels and insects look less like us, and don't possess the body or action cues that we're familiar with. They can all tell each apart very well, though. Plus insects are small, and we can't see the features that distinguish them.

Answer 2

A big part of this is just perception. I happen to think that dragonflies all look the same. But if you looked at squirrels more carefully, I bet they would actually look different in subtle ways, like the bushiness of their tails or the size of their tummies.

It makes sense that ants would look virtually identical, though, because an entire colony of ants has the queen for its mother and a very small number of males (or sometimes a single male) as fathers. The less genetic variability in a species, the more alike members of the species will look. Genetic variability is reduced by having smaller numbers of chromosomes and genes (i.e., fewer distinguishable traits) and fewer breeding individuals, both of which are true for insects. On the other hand, when a species has more chromosomes and the entire population breeds, as in mammals, much more variability can be seen.

Answer 3

They all do look different if you look close enough, except for ants. Ants have the same mom. They probably think we all look the same.

Answer 4

Within all species, there is genetic variation.