quadruped
/ˈkwɒdrʊpɛd
/noun
An animal which has four feet, especially an ungulate mammal: smell is so important to quadrupeds [as modifier]: primitive quadruped simian species...
- During terrestrial locomotion in a quadruped, the manus pushes against the substrate to decelerate, support, and reaccelerate the body.
- Horses, and other quadrupeds, also have scope for functional specialisation between limbs.
- A quadruped can be stable with only three feet on the ground.
Derivatives
quadrupedal
- The front legs of quadrupedal mammals typically support about 60% of body weight.
- However, except for Urban, few data are available to test if the kinematics of bipedal and quadrupedal running differ.
- Undistorted, he writes, the evidence left by the neck muscles ‘is within the range of fossil hominids’ and is ‘nothing like that of any quadrupedal ape.’
quadrupedalism
- These inferences, however, often occur in situations where an optimization is ambiguous (e.g., O'Leary and Uhen, 1999 on terrestrial quadrupedalism or aquatic predation).
Origin
Mid 17th century: from French quadrupède or Latin quadrupes, quadruped-, from quadru- 'four' + pes, ped- 'foot'.
- white game
- white gas
- white gasoline
- White, Gilbert
- white-glove
- white goat
- white gold
- white goods
- white goosefoot
- white grape
- white grass
- white grouse
- white grub
- White Guard
- agarose
- agarose gel
- agar plate
- Agartala
- Aga saga
- agasp
- Agassi, André
- Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolphe
- Agassiz, Lake
- Agassiz trawl
- agastache