Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
This distinction between cursorial and noncursorial is made to describe the
manner in which animals in each classification stand and use their legs to aid
in locomotion. Cursorial animals are those that stand and move with their legs
held straight and the femur and humerus inclined toward the vertical. Horses,
cows, and sheep fall into this category.
Noncursorial animals have strongly bent legs with the femur and humerus
held at an angle to one another and both of them more closely aligned to the
horizontal than the vertical. Animals such as rodents and small carnivores like
stoats fall into this category.
FIG 4.11
Noncursorial quadrupeds
have legs that are held away from
the body with a more horizontal
orientation.
