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Consider how the size of animals determines and restricts their patterns of walking and similar locomotion.
Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Sun Dec 15 2002
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Consider how the size of animals determines and restricts their patterns of walking and similar locomotion. One major difference between living in a terrestrial and living in a marine environment is that of locomotion. Marine environments are relatively homogeneous, and offer a supportive medium that greatly reduces the energy required to travel within it. Terrestrial habitats are heterogeneous, the landscapes change from smooth plains to mountains and cliffs, and there is no such supportive medium so the full effects of the Earths' gravity must be encountered. Such a varied habitat entails a huge range of niches and subsequent specific adaptations to movement within them. The niche that an animal exploits imposes restrictions on overall morphology and behaviour. In this essay I shall describe how being a specific size restricts and hence determines the patterns of walking and similar locomotion in animals. Topics covered will be energetic and structural factors and...
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