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Locomotion
References & Edit History Related Topics
Images & Videos
Least tern, Sternula antillarum, flying with wings raised and its yellow-tipped black bill pointed forward.
Close-up of a dark brown dwarf reed snake coiled and looping across sandy ground.
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.
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
At a Glance
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locomotion summary

Locomotion: References & Edit History

Additional Reading

Eadweard Muybridge, Animals in Motion (1899, reissued 1957), is a classic work on the subject. R.A.R. Tricker and B.J.K. Tricker, The Science of Movement (1966), is a useful introduction to the physics of locomotion. James Gray, Animal Locomotion (1968), provides a synthesis of most aspects of invertebrate and vertebrate locomotion. R.B. Clark, Dynamics in Metazoan Evolution (1964), discusses locomotor patterns of invertebrates with hydrostatic skeletons. Heinrich Hertel, Structure, Form, and Movement (1966; originally published in German, 1963), treats the mechanics of flight and undulatory swimming.

Article Contributors

Primary Contributors

  • George R. Zug
    Curator Emeritus, Division of Amphibians and Reptiles, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
  • The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
    Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.

Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors

Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Article title updated for style. Nov 06, 2026
Added one photo and one video; removed one photo. Nov 02, 2026
Corrected display issue. Jul 30, 2022
Modified link of Web site: Animal Diversity Web - Legs, Feet, and Cursorial Locomotion. Feb 13, 2020
Media added. May 09, 2016
Added image of Peringuey's sidewinding adder. Apr 18, 2012
Added diagram of common animal tracks. May 26, 2010
Added image of common animal tracks. Apr 01, 2010
Added new Web site: Animal Diversity Web - Legs, Feet, and Cursorial Locomotion. Mar 13, 2009
Article revised. Oct 18, 2000
Article added to new online database. Jul 26, 1999
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