In plantigrades (e.g. humans, bears, most rodents), the entire sole of the foot touches the ground, in digitigrades (most carnivores, most birds), the heel is off the ground and unguligrades (ungulates) walk on hooves.
Aren’t snakes terrestrial vertebrates? None of these seem to apply to snakes
I will steal this))
A good video to further illustrate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-AKPFiIEEw
Snakes do not abide by the laws of nature.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectilinear_locomotion
It is one of at least five forms of locomotion used by snakes, the others being lateral undulation, sidewinding, concertina movement, and slide-pushing.
It should be noted the linked article is actually titled “Carnivore & Ungulate Locomotion” and is about running on limbs. Really cool overview, actually
Damn, good point. Couldn’t come up with a counter-example so just copy/pasted off of Wikipedia verbatim lmao Look out for tomorrow’s TIL when I look up what that type of locomotion is called lol
Actually, I’m really at a loss at what to call this paraphyletic group; tetrapods come to mind but they technically still include snakes…
Modified plantigrade? Close relatives like skinks are plantigrades and some snake species have vestigial hind limb protrusions that are basically highly-modified femurs.
In kangaroos and other jumping animals it’s even further refined to saltatory locomotion
Satyrs be ungulating.
And aren’t hooves just modified nails?
And if I recall correctly, elephants walk on their toes. They just have a very thick padding, but their heels stay up.
So I’m a digitigrade?
I want around on my tip toes when I’m barefoot
