The Importance of Legs vs. Arms in Animals: Evolutionary Clues

KOMPAS.com – Evolution has equipped animals with arms and legs of all shapes and sizes. However, is one part of the body, between the arm or the leg, more important than the other?

In this case, the legs are more important than the arms. The answer depends on what species are being discussed.

“Animals live in different environments. They do different things ecologically,” said John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College in London.

“What we can do is look at the patterns we see in nature all the time and see how the legs and arms evolved, and that will give us some clues about the importance of the legs and arms,” ​​he said.

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Longer legs from humans to T-rex

Let’s start with humans (Homo sapiens) who have two legs, meaning humans only use two legs to walk, not four.

As a result, as quoted from Live Science, Tuesday (1/8/2023) it will likely be more difficult to survive without legs than arms.

Especially if there are no mobility aids for people with disabilities, such as prosthetics and wheelchairs.

“I would say humans are an example of a species that emphasizes the legs. These parts of the body are much bigger, longer, stronger. So I would say humans fall into the category that emphasizes that part of the body,” said Mattew Ravosa, director of the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Anatomy. at the University of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

The most obvious example of a creature that attaches importance to legs is the Tyrannosaurus rex. This dinosaur is famous for having small arms.

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The T-rex, which was 13.7 meters long, most likely only had 0.9 meter long arms. In short, it’s like a 1.8 meter tall human who has arms that are only 12.7 cm long.

It is likely that these carnivores evolved to allocate more of their body volume to their heads, more specifically, to their jaws which are used for hunting prey.

Arms are more important in birds

However, for birds, their arms, or rather their wings, are far more important than their legs.

Bird wings are basically arms modified and adapted for flight, and are often the largest part of the body of a flying bird.

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For example, the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) has a wingspan of about 3.35 m, while its body length is only about 1.3 m from bill tip to tail.

However, some species do not rely on legs or arms, because they do not have them.

Many species have evolved to become limbless because they allow them to better catch prey or move more quickly through their environment, additional appendages such as legs or arms getting in the way.

These animals, for example, snakes, worms, to eels.

“It’s so common, forelegs and hind legs don’t matter at all,” Hutchinson added.

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2023-08-02 11:30:00
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