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Digitigrade

 

 
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Digitigrade
 
 
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A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes. Digitigrades include walking birds (what many assume to be bird knees are actually ankles), cats, dogs, and most other mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s, but not humans, bears, and a few others (cf. plantigrade
Plantigrade

In mammals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the podials and metatarsals flat on the ground.Primates are examples of plantigrade species; in humans, the podials and metatarsals constitute the sole of the foot....
, unguligrade). They are generally quicker and move more silently than other mammals.

While humans usually walk with the sole
Sole (foot)

The sole is the bottom of the human foot. Anatomically, the sole of the foot is referred to as the Anatomical terms of location. The equivalent surface in ungulates is the hoof....
s of their feet on the ground, i.e.






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A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes. Digitigrades include walking birds (what many assume to be bird knees are actually ankles), cats, dogs, and most other mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s, but not humans, bears, and a few others (cf. plantigrade
Plantigrade

In mammals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the podials and metatarsals flat on the ground.Primates are examples of plantigrade species; in humans, the podials and metatarsals constitute the sole of the foot....
, unguligrade). They are generally quicker and move more silently than other mammals.

While humans usually walk with the sole
Sole (foot)

The sole is the bottom of the human foot. Anatomically, the sole of the foot is referred to as the Anatomical terms of location. The equivalent surface in ungulates is the hoof....
s of their feet on the ground, i.e. plantigrade
Plantigrade

In mammals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the podials and metatarsals flat on the ground.Primates are examples of plantigrade species; in humans, the podials and metatarsals constitute the sole of the foot....
 locomotion, digitigrade animals walk on their distal
Distal phalanges

Distal phalanges are bones found in the limbs of most vertebrate skeletons. In humans, they are the finger bones located furthest from the shoulder joint, and the toe bones located furthest from the hip....
 and intermediate phalanges
Intermediate phalanges

Intermediate phalanges are bones found in the Limb s of most vertebrates. In humans, they are the bones of the finger and toe which lie in the middle, between the two wrinkly joints....
. Digitigrade locomotion is responsible for the distinctive hooked shape of dog legs.

There are anatomical differences between a plantigrade and digitigrade limb
Limb (anatomy)

A limb is a jointed, or prehensile , appendage of the human or other animal body.Most animals use limbs for locomotion, such as walking, running, or climbing....
. Digitigrade animals have relatively long carpals and tarsal
Tarsus (skeleton)

In tetrapods, the tarsus are the cluster of bones in the foot between the tibia and fibula and the metatarsus. The bones of the tarsus do not belong to individual toes, whereas those of the metatarsus do....
s, and the bones which would correspond to the human ankle
Ankle

In human anatomy, the ankle joint is formed where the foot and the human leg meet. The ankle, or talocrural joint, is a synovial hinge joint that connects the distal ends of the tibia and fibula in the lower limb with the proximal end of the talus bone in the foot....
 are thus set much higher in the limb than in a human. This effectively lengthens the foot, so much so that a digitigrade animal's "hands" and "feet" are often thought to correspond only to what would be the bones of the human toe or finger.

Examples of digitigrades

  • Birds
  • Canidae
    Canidae

    Canidae is the family of the dogs; a member of this family is called a canid. They include wolf, foxes, coyotes, and jackals. The Canidae family is divided into the "true dogs" of the tribe Canini and the "foxes" of the tribe Vulpini....
    • Wolf
    • Dog
      Dog

      The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
    • Coyote
      Coyote

      The coyote , also known as the prairie wolf, is a species of canid found throughout North America and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States, and Canada....
  • Equidae
    Equidae

    Equidae is the Taxonomy Family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses, donkeys, and zebras, and many other species known only from fossils....
  • Felidae
    Felidae

    Felidae is the family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. Felids are the most strictly Carnivore of the sixteen mammal families in the order Carnivora....
    • Cat
      Cat

      The cat , also known as the Domestication cat or house cat to distinguish it from other Felinae and Felidae, is a small predationy carnivore species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests....
    • Lion
      Lion

      The lion is a member of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. With exceptionally large males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger....
  • Elephant
    Elephant

    Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant ....
     (semi-digitigrade)