Evolutionary history of quadrupedal walking gaits shows mammalian release from locomotor constraint.

ABSTRACT: Vertebrates employ an impressive range of strategies for coordinating their limb movements while walking. Although this gait variation has been quantified and hypotheses for its origins tested in select tetrapod lineages, a comprehensive understanding of gait evolution in a macroevolutionary context is currently lacking. We used freely available internet videos to nearly double the number of species with quantitative gait data, and used phylogenetic comparative methods to test key hypotheses about symmetrical gait origin and evolution. We find strong support for an ancestral lateral-sequence diagonal-couplet gait in quadrupedal gnathostomes, and this mode is remarkably conserved throughout tetrapod phylogeny. Evolutionary rate analyses show that mammals overcame this ancestral constraint,

SUBMITTER: Wimberly AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8370795 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature