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Their specialised hands and feet have long, curved claws to allow them to hang upside down from branches without effort, [32] and are used to drag themselves along the ground, since they cannot walk. On three-toed sloths, the arms are 50 percent longer than the legs. [24] Sloths move only when necessary and even then, very slowly.
Tardigrades are usually about 0.5 mm (0.020 in) long when fully grown. [2] They are short and plump, with four pairs of legs, each ending in claws (usually four to eight) or suction disks. [ 2 ] [ 17 ] Tardigrades are prevalent in mosses and lichens and feed on plant cells, algae, and small invertebrates.
The following is a list of selected animals in order of increasing number of legs, from 0 legs to 653 pairs of legs, the maximum recorded in the animal kingdom. [1] Each entry provides the relevant taxa up to the rank of phylum. Each entry also provides the common name of the animal.
In the English language, many animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups. The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is The Book of Saint Albans , an essay on hunting published in 1486 and attributed to Juliana Berners . [ 1 ]
Some birds, like the sanderling, have only the forward-facing toes; these are called tridactyl feet while the ostrich have only two toes (didactyl feet). [2] [4] The first digit, called the hallux, is homologous to the human big toe. [7] [10] The claws are located on the extreme phalanx of each toe. [4]
The number of locomotory appendages varies much between animals, and sometimes the same animal may use different numbers of its legs in different circumstances. The best contender for unipedal movement is the springtail , which while normally hexapedal , hurls itself away from danger using its furcula , a tail -like forked rod that can be ...
Many primate and bear species will adopt a bipedal gait in order to reach food or explore their environment, though there are a few cases where they walk on their hind limbs only. Several arboreal primate species, such as gibbons and indriids, exclusively walk on two legs during the brief periods they spend on the ground. Many animals rear up ...
Animal cells uniquely possess the cell junctions called tight junctions, gap junctions, and desmosomes. [26] With few exceptions—in particular, the sponges and placozoans—animal bodies are differentiated into tissues. [27] These include muscles, which enable locomotion, and nerve tissues, which transmit signals and coordinate the body.