Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web.

While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous.

Join our community today!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Rarest types of locomotion
Topic Started: Jun 22 2017, 09:57 AM (1,181 Views)
Hybrid
Member Avatar
May Specula Grant you Bountiful Spec!

Quote:
 
Obligatory mention that bipedal locomotion itself is pretty weird and uncommon, only being found in a small handful of mostly hopping mammals, various groups of dinosaurs, and... nope, that's prettymuch it, off the top of my head, am I forgetting something? The upright human walking stance in particular is completely unheard of, although surprisingly efficient.

How would you define rare in that instance. Bipedalism has evolved quiet a few times, as mention by you and D. You did say uncommon though, but I wouldn't say its too weird given the number of times it has evolved. It's about as weird as losing limbs entirely, which also has happened a lot.

But then what's weird? The norm for tetrapods is quadrupedism, so everything straying from the norm would be considered odd.

Swimming with an up-and-down motion has only appeared few times, so you could consider that rare. It's not even like that's what only mammals can do, considering otter shrews swim side-to-side. Certainly not the rarest locomotion though, but it's something.

If I sound rude while critiquing, I apologize in hindsight!
"To those like the misguided; look at the story of Man, and come to your senses! It is not the destination, but the trip that matters. What you do today influences tomorrow, not the other way around. Love Today, and seize All Tomorrows!" - Nemo Ramjet
ノ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ヽ

Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
HangingThief
Member Avatar
ghoulish
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
StellarInsect
Jun 22 2017, 10:15 AM
Holben
Jun 22 2017, 10:07 AM
I think the flic-flac spider and the rock-climbing goby (which climbs up the sides of waterfalls using its mouth) are both pretty cool and unusual.

My favourite, which is a very recent observation and I'm not aware of any research into it at all, is caterpillar group locomotion, though. It might be more efficient for them to move in a heap like this, as caterpillars cycle from top to bottom and the whole group moves a bit like a wheel. Very much unconfirmed though.
Some fungus gnat larvae use the same locomotion as the caterpillars. But I am not aware of any other insects that is similar.


The fungus gnat maggot swarms are pretty crazy. Might have more to do with moisture conservation than increasing the efficiency of movement. Or it could be some of both.


I'd like to point out that the caterpillars don't appear to be caterpillars at all. If you look closely you can see that they have more than five pairs of prolegs. They might be some sort of sawfly. (A herbivorous hymenopteran with free living caterpillar-like larvae.) Might explain why there's no apparent research into that "caterpillar" swarming behavior... probably still unresearched though.
Hey.


Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
WaterWitch
Member Avatar
Might manage to hold down a project some day
 *  *  *  *  *
Moving on a singular foot is only seen with Gastropods as far as i know, I could be completely wrong though.
Current Projects
Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Tartarus
Member Avatar
Prime Specimen
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
ÐK
Jun 22 2017, 11:20 AM
It evolved in pseudosuchians at least three times (ornithosuchids, derived poposauroids and rauisuchids), compared to ornithodirans where it only evolved once.
Wasn't Scleromochlus a bipedal ornithodiran but on a separate branch from the dinosaurs (being closer to pterosaurs)? It would have evolved its bipedalism independently from the dinosauromorphs.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
HangingThief
Member Avatar
ghoulish
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Dilophoraptor
Jun 22 2017, 07:51 PM
Moving on a singular foot is only seen with Gastropods as far as i know, I could be completely wrong though.
That's a form of ciliate locomotion, which is pretty common.
Hey.


Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Chuditch
Member Avatar
Dasyurid
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Nanotyranus
Jun 22 2017, 10:06 AM
Rolling is pretty infrequent- there's pebble toads and carwheel spiders that do it, but I can't think of any others.
I can't think of any others either. I know that carwheel spiders and pebble frogs only use their rolling to escape danger though. But that is as close as you can get to sustained rolling.

However, I have heard of 2 other rolling animals. One is the hoop snake, an Australian cryptid, or more properly put, mythical creature, and a raccoon I once saw on YouTube rolling through a house.
My wildlife YouTube channel
Projects
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ÐK
Member Avatar
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Tartarus
Jun 23 2017, 05:19 AM
Wasn't Scleromochlus a bipedal ornithodiran but on a separate branch from the dinosaurs (being closer to pterosaurs)? It would have evolved its bipedalism independently from the dinosauromorphs.
That would require the ancestral ornithodire to be a quadruped, which there isn't really any evidence for. The basal dinosauromorphs are bipedal, and if Scleromochlus indeed represents a basal pterosauromorph, that would imply that bipedalism is the ancestral state for Ornithodira, since basal members of both lines exhibit it.

Scleromochlus could alternatively be on the dinosauromorph stem, which would leave things more ambiguous on the state of the ancestral ornithodire posture but would regardless leave all our known basal ornithodires as bipeds anyway. Scleromochlus could even sit outside of Ornithodira, before the dinosauromorph-pterosauromorph split, but then with a small biped just outside of the group, and small bipeds at the base of line within the group, it would still be more parsimonious to assume bipedalism had evolved once in Avemetatarsalia and was retained in the ancestor of Ornithodira.
~Projects~

Earth Without Earth; Like nothing on Earth...


Quote:
 
In the absence of proper data, speculate wildy.

~Mark Witton, Pterosaurs (Chapter 3, page 18)


Quote:
 
pfft, DK making a project

~Troll Man, Skype (15/2/15)


Quote:
 
I'm sorry but in what alternative universe would thousands of zebras be sent back in time by some sort of illegal time travel group to change history and preparing them by making gigantic working animatronic allosaurs?

~Komodo, Zebra's sent back in time (4/1/13)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
trex841
Member Avatar
Entity
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
The Gondwanian
Jun 23 2017, 07:57 AM
Nanotyranus
Jun 22 2017, 10:06 AM
Rolling is pretty infrequent- there's pebble toads and carwheel spiders that do it, but I can't think of any others.
I can't think of any others either. I know that carwheel spiders and pebble frogs only use their rolling to escape danger though. But that is as close as you can get to sustained rolling.

However, I have heard of 2 other rolling animals. One is the hoop snake, an Australian cryptid, or more properly put, mythical creature, and a raccoon I once saw on YouTube rolling through a house.

I believe Mantis Shrimp can also roll when they are on land, though I don't know where the article where I read that is.
F.I.N.D.R Field Incident Logs
A comprehensive list of all organisms, artifacts, and alternative worlds encountered by the foundation team.

At the present time, concepts within are inconsistent and ever shifting.

(And this is just the spec related stuff)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
Member Avatar
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
ÐK
Jun 23 2017, 09:20 AM
it would still be more parsimonious to assume bipedalism had evolved once in Avemetatarsalia and was retained in the ancestor of Ornithodira.
Aren't ornithodira and avemetatsaralia the same thing?


Anyway, I would like to point out that, in a way, legs as a whole are rare. After all they only evolved twice (tetrapods and panarthropods). But legged organisms have become so widespread, that they appear to be the norm.
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
LittleLazyLass
Member Avatar
Proud quilt in a bag

Avemetatarsalia is everything closer to birds than crocodiles; Ornithodira is the last common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. So in general they're very similar, but Aphanosauria and maybe a couple other standalone taxa are outside of the latter but within the former. All ornithodirans are avemetatarsalians, but a few avemetatarsalians aren't orntihodirans.
totally not British, b-baka!
Posted Image You like me (Unlike)
I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
Read First
Words Maybe
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
Member Avatar
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Little
Jun 23 2017, 04:20 PM
Avemetatarsalia is everything closer to birds than crocodiles; Ornithodira is the last common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. So in general they're very similar, but Aphanosauria and maybe a couple other standalone taxa are outside of the latter but within the former. All ornithodirans are avemetatarsalians, but a few avemetatarsalians aren't orntihodirans.
Oh, I see. If there any information on the transition between generic "croc looking archosaurs and early avemetatsaralians?
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ÐK
Member Avatar
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Not especially, since Aphanosauria has only very recently been recognised. Prior to earlier this year, Avemetatarsalia and Ornithodira encompassed the same set of animals, namely just the pterosaurs and dinosauromorphs. The new material from Teleocrater and recognition that other previously miscellaneous archosauriforms form a clade of basal avemetatarsalians is a crucial piece of the puzzle, but we're only just beginning to uncover what was going on in the early evolution of Avemetatarsalia.

At the very least the discovery of Teleocrater and other aphanosaurs suggests that the evolution of the avemetarsalian ankle is much more complicated than initially assumed, with numerous basal taxa representing unusual mixes of the crocodile- and bird-ankles. How they developed fully erect limbs and a bipedal stance remains unknown for now.
~Projects~

Earth Without Earth; Like nothing on Earth...


Quote:
 
In the absence of proper data, speculate wildy.

~Mark Witton, Pterosaurs (Chapter 3, page 18)


Quote:
 
pfft, DK making a project

~Troll Man, Skype (15/2/15)


Quote:
 
I'm sorry but in what alternative universe would thousands of zebras be sent back in time by some sort of illegal time travel group to change history and preparing them by making gigantic working animatronic allosaurs?

~Komodo, Zebra's sent back in time (4/1/13)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Inceptis
Member Avatar
In-tro-vertebrate
 *  *  *  *  *
Jellyfish actually don't use jet propulsion, though I'm not sure about siphonophores and the more derived cubozoans, such as my avatar. Instead, they create a pocket of low-pressure that pulls them along. Hagfish do something similar, but otherwise I've heard nothing else about it. It has to be pretty efficient since medusozoans, literal bags of gel, evolved it, and they were more or less the first macroscopic swimming things on the planet.

Also, some caterpillars use ballistic rolling, which is what the hoop snake supposedly does.
This was getting fairly big.
Spoiler: click to toggle
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
Member Avatar
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Don't hagfish just do regular swimming via undulations of the body like almost every other vertebrate/craniate?
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Inceptis
Member Avatar
In-tro-vertebrate
 *  *  *  *  *
I'm positive of this. Besides, their skin is so baggy that low pressure swimming is probably more effective than via undulations.
This was getting fairly big.
Spoiler: click to toggle
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Free Forums. Reliable service with over 8 years of experience.
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · General Spec · Next Topic »
Add Reply