Study Questions Chapter 10 - Body Support and Locomotion

1. Diagram tetrapod locomotion for a salamander and include a discussion of center of mass. Include a discussion of the movement of the pelvic girdle.

2. Why can't lizards breathe during locomotion (see chapter 6)? What are the consequences of this constraint (Hint contrast with mammals)?
3. Describe the key innovation that has allowed lizards to radiate into arboreal habitats. How does this aid in locomotion in arboreal habitats?
4. Describe the basic locomotor mode in the evolution of limbless squamates. What adaptation allows snakes to employ other modes of locomotion, and what are these modes?
5. Plot a graph of the cost of locomotion for salmanders, frogs, lizards, and the three forms of locomotion of snakes (from Chapter 6).
6. Describe the forces that an amphibian faces in its fluid medium. Are these forces the same as those faced by a bird in air or a gliding Draco? What two basic difference causes the adaptations to differ?
7. Describe the adaptations for fossorial habitats. Which locomotory mode of snakes is ancestral if the ancestor of all snakes was fossorial?
8. Describe the adaptations for arboreality in lizards by comparing and constrasting a Sceloporus, Geckos, and Chameleons.