Talk:Terrestrial locomotion/Archive 1

Hibbertopterous
Hibbertopterus was one of the first animals to display terrestrial locomotion. Might be worth adding a section on the evolution of terrestrial locomotion, and show the Hibbertopterus trackway picture shown at the Hibbertopterus page.Nicolharper 16:52, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Saltatorial
I think that saltatorial should redirect to this page and be explained here. I'm not really sure how to add it to the current page organizational structure. Any ideas? --Aranae 21:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi. I can't find the saltatorial page. Nicolharper 20:47, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry. The page doesn't exist.  I am just suggesting that the term be linked here and discussed here since saltatorial is a form of terrestrial locomotion (the jumping style seen in kangaroos, jerboas, springhares, kangaroo rats, and gerbils).
 * Hi. Perhaps the place for discussing saltation on this page should be within leggedlocomotion#gaits, with leggedlocomotion#gaits perhaps divided into four subsections for walking, running, saltation, and other. There is some discussion of saltation in kangaroos on the kangaroo page, however a general discussion would be a good addition to this page. I have added some information from your post above to the terrestrial locomotion page. Nicolharper 14:12, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

The pictures are a good addition
I like the pictures. A good addition. Nicolharper 12:38, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I try to add images whenever I see pages lacking in visual content. Finding the rolled up pangolin was lucky. Now we need to summarize this at animal locomotion. Richard001 23:56, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Gallumphing?
There appears to be no mention of gallumphing, which is what earless seals do out of water. Or would that be covered under "sprawling stance"? --Damian Yerrick (talk | stalk) 17:39, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Or it might be under "pedal locomotary waves". --Damian Yerrick (talk | stalk) 02:08, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

sidewinding
I want to add sidewinding to the list of "weird locomotor patterns" that begins with "Most animals move in ... However there are some exceptions." Alas, I suspect the current "Most animals..." statement is ambiguous enough that it may technically include sidewinding.

Is there a way I can add sidewinding to that list and still be technically accurate -- perhaps by tweaking the "Most animals..." statement so it clearly does not include sidewinding? --68.0.124.33 (talk) 03:58, 14 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Sidewinding isn't actually 'weird', just a bit hard to figure out. It's actually nothing but modified lateral undulation.  See Jayne's 1988 paper for EMG patterns. Mokele (talk) 03:11, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

"Slithering"
Personally, I think the term is misleading, not to mention biologically meaningless (the most recent paper on limbless locomotion to use the term was in 1934, IIRC). I suggest that the category be changed to "limbless locomotion". Also, in that box-thingy that appears at the bottom of locomotion pages, we can remove "slithering" from limbless locomotion and replace it with "other modes". Sound good? Mokele (talk) 21:22, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, in light of the *overwhelming response*, I've made my edits. Over time, I'm going to substantially edit this whole page, to better bring it up to date with modern biomechanics. Mokele (talk) 19:14, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Proposed project of interest - organismal biomechanics
Hi all, I'm trying to start a Wikiproject to cover Organismal Biomechanics, and I was wondering if anyone else would be interested? Articles such as animal locomotion. gait, muscle, and similar would be our targets. See my userpage for a list of what I'm planning to work on, including some truly awful articles in desperate need of attention. See proposal page at WikiProject_Council/Proposals. I'll keep anyone who signs up updated via their userpages until I get a project page made. Help of all kinds is appreciated, from brain dumps to wikifying, grammar and dealing with references. Mokele (talk) 01:38, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Running Lizard?
WHy does the "fastest running lizard" deserve any special attention? That seems utterly arbitrary.

The cheetah deserves attention as having the highest top speed using limbed static locomotion. I think special attention should also be drawn to the fastest rolling animal, and to the fastest one using limbless motion (sliding along the ground). That would make three relevant special cases of interest, but only ONE of them should be limbed motion — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.69.100.180 (talk) 10:03, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Terrestrial locomotion. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090123112720/http://dinosauria.com:80/jdp/misc/croc.htm to http://www.dinosauria.com/jdp/misc/croc.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 16:56, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

Broaden lead
The existing lead, in my view, was excessively focused on taxonomic concerns. I think Wikipedia needs a quick survey of terrestrial locomotion that takes into account more of the diversity of the subject area, such as terrain, land cover, and non-standard locomotive stragegies.

Toward that end, I bulked in the following extra material into the lead:

Some terrains and terrestrial surfaces permit or demand alternative locomotive styles. A sliding component to locomotion becomes possible on slippery surfaces (such as ice and snow), where location is aided by potential energy, or on loose surfaces (such as sand or scree), where friction is low but purchase (traction) is difficult. Humans, especially, have adapted to sliding over terrestrial snowpack and terrestrial ice by means of ice skates, snow skis, and toboggans.

Aquatic animals adapted to polar climates, such as ice seals and penguins also take advantage of the slipperiness of ice and snow as part of their locomotion repertoire. Beavers are known to take advantage of a mud slick known as a "beaver slide" over a short distance when passing from land into a lake or pond. Human locomotion in mud is improved through the use of cleats. Some snakes use snakes use an unusual method of movement known as sidewinding on sand or loose soil. Animals caught in terrestrial mudflows are subject to involuntary locomotion; this may be beneficial to the distribution of species with limited locomotive range under their own power.

Many species of monkeys and apes use a form of arboreal locomotion known as brachiation, with forelimbs as the prime mover. Some elements of the gymnastic sport of uneven bars resemble brachiation, but most adult humans do not have the upper body strength required to sustain brachiation. Many other species of arboreal animal with tails will incorporate their tails into the locomotion repertoire, if only as a minor component of their suspensory behaviors.

Locomotion on irregular, steep surfaces require agility and dynamic balance known as sure-footedness. Mountain goats are famed for navigating vertiginous mountainsides where the least misstep could lead to a fatal fall.

The remainder of this article focuses on the anatomical and physiological distinctions involving terrestrial locomotion from the taxonomic perspective.

It was not my intent to do a perfect job of this, but merely to capture in first draft what had previously been excluded.

At the very least, the previous lead was falling short of MOS:LEAD: "The lead serves as an introduction to the article and a summary of its most important contents."

That's all I'm going to do here. Have at it, edit at will, I've moved along. &mdash; MaxEnt 23:45, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

Merge Terrestrial animal → Terrestrial locomotion
Unnecessary WP:FORK. Both articles have exactly the same scope  User:Dunkleosteus77 &#124;push to talk 21:58, 1 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Support Terrestrial animal is bad holdover from 2006. Hemiauchenia (talk) 14:08, 31 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Comment in general I support the merge of these two articles, I am a little curious on which should be mainspace title though, I would consider Terrestrial Locomotion to be a subset of a page dedicated to terrestrial animals, as not all animals necessarily have locomotion, some are sedentary, to me defining what dentes a terrestrial animal is paramount to defining how they move. However both could be done on the same page. Cheers Scott Thomson  ( Faendalimas ) talk 19:43, 3 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Oppose, and find the justification very hard to follow. Terrestrial animals do many things other than moving, as the current versions of the articles demonstrate. I also agree with Scott Thomson, that the merge direction to a subtopic doesn't make sense. I think that the current structure works and should be maintained; structurally, having both terrestrial animal and aquatic animal seems to work, keeping Terrestrial locomotion as a separate page as an independently notable topic. Klbrain (talk) 09:25, 5 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Strong Oppose Terrestrial animal, terrestrial plant, aquatic animal, and aquatic plant are four fundamental subsets of living things. Terrestrial locomotion and aquatic locomotion should stay as separate articles. 2001:8003:9008:1301:B4C6:614C:24A8:5599 (talk) 04:06, 2 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Oppose Terrestrial animal and Terrestrial locomotion are not quite the same topic although, they do overlap in the definitions and meanings since Terrestrial locomotion describes the physical characteristics and attributes of a Terrestrial animal. BigRed606 (talk) 22:36, 20 September 2021 (UTC)