Locomotion-(WALKING)
The locomotion of mammals can be broadly classified into seven types
1) Walking & Running
2) Jumping, (Leaping ,Hopping)
3) Climbing & Balancing
4) Brachiation (Swinging)
5) Gliding, Parachuting & Flying
6) Burrowing (Digging)
7) Swimming & Diving
Walking
Walking is a terrestrial locomotion in which at least one leg is always in contact with the ground. The speed of
walking is limited by the lack of an aerial or leaping phase in which the animal propels itself through the air. To increase
their speed, animals must change their gait from walking to running. Running is locomotion with an aerial phase in
which the body is lifted from the ground in order to extend the length of a stride.
Weight-bearing walk
The heaviest terrestrial animal on Earth is the African elephant, males of which may weigh more than 10 tons (ref.2). The elephant body is characterized by a large head and ears, a large and flexible trunk, and long, pillar-like limbs, which support the body like the legs of a table. A table can be relatively sturdy and support a great weight even if the connection between the top panel and the legs is relatively loose. It could be considered that the same is true of the elephant – the pelvic and pectoral girdles do not need to be supported with large blocks of muscle, as long as the legs remain extended and the body axis remains more or less horizontal.
The elephant maintains its table-like posture when walking (A: lateral walk:of the section of Locomotion), keeping the legs extended beneath its body(B).
Three types of locomotion
The locomotion of terrestrial mammals can be classified into 3 types from part for contact the ground. When moving, plantigrade animals keep the heel bone on the ground, digitigrade animals move by only the digits touching the ground. Unguligrade mammals walk and run on the tip of digits. Plantigrade excel to keep the stability of body, while ungulates excel to produce power. Plantigrade changes to digitigrade depending on moving speed.
Gait
Gaits of quadrupedal mammals. Filled and open circles show feet in contact with the ground and in the air, respectively.
Speed
Speed is a crucial aspect of locomotion in most mammals. An ability to move faster may increase success in hunting or escaping. Running speed is controlled by two components of the stride - length (the distance travelled in a single step cycle) and frequency (the rate at which one step follows another). Both stride length and stride frequency are related to body size, with large animals tending to take fewer, longer strides than small species. These differences compensate for one another to some extent, but because stride length increases with increasing body size more rapidly than stride frequency decreases, larger animals generally run faster than small ones, with some notable exceptions. Some of the swiftest-running animals, including the cheetah, pronghorn antelope and several species of hare achieve stride lengths well beyond what might be expected from body size alone, by hurling themselves into the aerial phase of galloping and greatly increasing the distance travelled in each cycle (ref.6, ref.9).
The copy rights (license) of all movies, figures, photos, sentences on this website except for photograph of wombat, springhare, and kangaroo rat
(license: Tokyo Zoological Park Society, Ueno Japan),are belonged to Dr. Wada (Chief editor of mammals-locomotion.com).
(license: Tokyo Zoological Park Society, Ueno Japan),are belonged to Dr. Wada (Chief editor of mammals-locomotion.com).
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