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In arthropods, each of the leg segments articulates with the next segment in a hinge joint and may only bend in one plane. This means that a greater number of segments is required to achieve the same kinds of movements that are possible in vertebrate animals, which have rotational ball-and-socket joints at the base of the fore and hind limbs. [4]
All arthropod appendages are variations of the same basic structure (homologous), and which structure is produced is controlled by "homeobox" genes. Changes to these genes have allowed scientists to produce animals (chiefly Drosophila melanogaster) with modified appendages, such as legs instead of antennae. [2]
The strong, segmented limbs of arthropods eliminate the need for one of the coelom's main ancestral functions, as a hydrostatic skeleton, which muscles compress in order to change the animal's shape and thus enable it to move. Hence the coelom of the arthropod is reduced to small areas around the reproductive and excretory systems.
Pedipalps contain sensitive chemical detectors and function as taste and smell organs, supplementing those on the legs. [2] In sexually-mature male spiders, the final segment of the pedipalp, the tarsus, develops a complicated structure (sometimes called the palpal bulb or palpal organ) that is used to transfer sperm to the female seminal ...
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Cerci (sg.: cercus) are paired appendages usually on the rear-most segments of many arthropods, including insects and symphylans. Many forms of cerci serve as sensory organs, but some serve as pinching weapons or as organs of copulation. [1] In many insects, they simply may be functionless vestigial structures.
Arthropleura had two sets of feeding appendages, the first short and round, and the second elongated and leg-like. The specimens each had 24 body segments and 44 pairs of legs - 88 legs in total.
The arthropods are a phylum of animals with jointed legs; they include the insects, arachnids such as spiders, myriapods, and crustaceans. [1] Insects play many roles in culture including their direct use as food, [2] in medicine, [3] for dyestuffs, [4] and in science, where the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster serves as a model organism for work in genetics and developmental biology.