Fig. 1. Hildebrand gait plots for the 90 steps analyzed from seven Monodelphis domestica. Duty factor is the % of stride that the reference hind foot is on the ground; limb phase is the % of stride that the fore-foot follows the hind-foot on the same side. Gaits with duty factor 50% are classified as walking gaits (open squares), while those with duty factor <50% are classified as running gaits (open circles, non-aerial runs; filled circles, aerial runs). The limb-phase variable describes the general and specific footfall patterns associated with symmetrical gaits. Note that Monodelphis used only trotting gaits. The black triangle marks the velocity vector superimposed onto the Hildebrand plot from the three-dimensional plot of velocity, limb phase and duty factor. For comparison, the black outline encompasses 1178 symmetrical gait plots from 156 genera of tetrapods observed by Hildebrand (1985).

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