An evolutionary perspective on the walking gait of the long-beaked echidnaстатья
Статья опубликована в высокорейтинговом журнале
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 14 сентября 2013 г.
Аннотация:The speed, gait and trackway of the long-beaked echidna’s walk are reported for
the first time. The gait formula is devised. Despite its sprawling limb posture,
echidna’s walking technique shows fundamental differences from that of the
classical sprawlers such as urodelans and lizards, which are: (1) the presence of the
pace-like lateral stages of support and even their prevalence over the diagonal
ones; (2) the narrow, though sprawling, limb posture and, consequently, the
narrow trackway; (3) rolling, skidding and yawing of the trunk from side to side;
(4) forelimb in-fingerness, which presumably provides the major thrust for these
side-to-side movements. On the whole, the echidna’s sprawling type is more
upright than in urodelans and lizards and is closer to the parasagittal type of
therians. Like therians, echidnas already employ dynamic equilibration instead of
the static one. The question is posed of whether mammalian ancestors have ever
walked in the manner of urodelans and lizards.