TERRESTRIAL LOCOMOTION WITHOUT LIMBS

Abstract

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the aid of the National Science Foundation (NSF G-9054) which supports my studies. Grants from Sigma-Xi RESA and the Bache Fund of the National Academy of Sciences permitted me to pursue field work. New York Zoological Society through the courtesy of H. Dowling and H. Knobloch assisted with the loan of motion pictures, in particular the footage shot for their movie, The Locomotion of Snakes, prepared under the direction of James A. Oliver, and many friends put me in their debt by discussing aspects of the present problem. Walter Bock, Charles M. Bogert, John C. Dalton, D. Dwight Davis, Wilfred T. Neill, M. Graham Netting, Ernest E. Williams and my wife took the trouble of furnishing detailed comments on the manuscript. 1 Limitations of space and the organization of this symposium restrict this analysis, first to vertebrates, and secondly to terrestrial forms. I thus omit swim? ming not only by actually or functionally limbless fish, but also by snakes and lizards (aquatic mam? mals and birds are neither actually nor functionally limbless), flight (or gliding) by snakes, and various mechanisms of primary use for burrowing or the excavation of tunnels. 1959, 1960; Cowles, 1956; Mosauer, 1930) have considered details regarding mechanism or function of single types of move? ment. In spite of this resurgence of attention, there remain many questions (cf Klauber, 1956), and a summary statement can be justified only if designed as the basis for additional investigation. literature deals essentially with four methods of terrestrial limbless locomotion