Chapter 5. Climbing

In the citing paper

“Extant arboreal vertebrates have a suite of adaptations different from their terrestrial counterparts to aid in moving along thin diameter branches, such as large phalangeal indices and extremely mobile shoulder/hip and wrist/ankle joints [25].”

In the citing paper

“Occasional climbers, require little behavioural or morphological adaptations.”

In the citing paper

“These characters have been demonstrated to be indicators of increasing arboreality [25], [42], [57].”

In the citing paper

“Increased levels of arboreality are associated with decreased BI values [25], [42] i.e. relatively longer zeugopodial elements in the forelimb.”

In the citing paper

“it has been suggested that climbing adaptations often manifest themselves primarily in the hindlimb [25], [45].”

In the citing paper

“Truly arboreal tetrapods, or those for whom a scansorial lifestyle occupies a large portion of their foraging regimes, have convergent solutions to the twin problem of securing themselves while maintaining manoeuvrability [25], [32], [34]–[36].”

In the citing paper

“In climbing animals an upright distal limb segment is not seen during climbing as it raises the centre of mass away from the substrate (the vertical trunk or along sub horizontal thin branches) and increasing the effort during climbing and the rotational forces during branch walking which leads to increased likelihood of falling [25].”

In the citing paper

“Extant avian and mammalian climbers reduce the distance between their centre of gravity and the substrate by crouching [25], [61], [62].”

In the citing paper

“and is crucial for arboreal locomotion in extant birds [19], [25] because they cannot rotate their ankles.”

In the citing paper

“Mobility in multiple planes in the ankle joint is critical for arboreal locomotion in extant organisms [25], [70], [91].”