Locomotion: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

Least tern, Sternula antillarum, flying with wings raised and its yellow-tipped black bill pointed forward.

Pseudopodial locomotion.

A diagram shows illustrations of five animals-herring gull, crow, spotted sandpiper, sidewinder rattlesnake, and grasshopper-each paired with a drawing of their distinctive tracks as they move across a surface.

Illustrated chart showing the footprints of eight animals-opossum, skunk, raccoon, red fox, woodchuck, cottontail rabbit, gray squirrel, and muskrat-each with labeled front and hind foot tracks next to a drawing of the animal.

Illustration of various animals running or moving, each labeled with its top speed, including cheetah, pronghorn antelope, ostrich, giraffe, elephant, deer, gazelle, greyhound, jackrabbit, fox, emu, roadrunner, warthog, rhinoceros, Mongolian wild ass, two-toed sloth, and desert tortoise.

Peringuey's sidewinding adder

Side-by-side skeletal diagrams compare a modern human standing upright and a gorilla walking on all fours, with labeled bones and close-up views of the female pelvis for each species.

Close-up of a dark brown dwarf reed snake coiled and looping across sandy ground.

Discover how individual cilia employ viscous drag to coordinate power and recovery strokes for locomotion

Take a microscopic look at how a eukaryotic flagellate's flagellum propels the organism through water

A spider appears to run or gallop across the surface of water, shown in a grainy, high-contrast image.

Know how some spiders walk on the surface of the water

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

aerial locomotion arboreal locomotion appendicular locomotion flagellar propulsion navigation axial locomotion Pseudopodial locomotion The Fastest Animals on Earth Why Are Sloths So Slow?Aquatic locomotion dance Animal learning Animal social behavior drug use Reproductive behaviour Animal communication collective behavior humor communication thought

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic