digitigrade - meaning and definition. What is digitigrade
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What (who) is digitigrade - definition

ANIMAL THAT STANDS OR WALKS ON THE FULL LENGTH OF ITS DIGITS/TOES
Digitigrade locomotion; Digitgrade locomotion; Digigrade; Digititrade; Digitrade
  • Comparison of lower limb structure. From left to right: plantigrade, digitigrade and unguligrade. In red the basipod, in violet the metapodia, in yellow the phalanges, in brown the keratin nails.

digitigrade         
['d?d??t??gre?d]
¦ adjective Zoology (of a mammal) walking on its toes and not touching the ground with its heels, as a dog, cat, or rodent. Compare with plantigrade.
Origin
C19: from L. digitus 'finger, toe' + -gradus '-walking'.
Digitigrade         
·adj Walking on the toes;
- distinguished from plantigrade.
II. Digitigrade ·noun An animal that walks on its toes, as the cat, lion, wolf, ·etc.;
- distinguished from a plantigrade, which walks on the palm of the foot.
Digitigrade         
In terrestrial vertebrates, digitigrade () locomotion is walking or running on the toes (from the Latin digitus, 'finger', and gradior, 'walk'). A digitigrade animal is one that stands or walks with its toes (metatarsals) touching the ground, and the rest of its foot lifted.

Wikipedia

Digitigrade

In terrestrial vertebrates, digitigrade () locomotion is walking or running on the toes (from the Latin digitus, 'finger', and gradior, 'walk'). A digitigrade animal is one that stands or walks with its toes (phalanges) on the ground, and the rest of its foot lifted. Digitigrades include birds (what many see as bird's knees are actually ankles), cats, dogs, and many other mammals, but not plantigrades (such as humans) or unguligrades (such as horses). Digitigrades generally move more quickly and quietly than other animals.

There are anatomical differences between the limb anatomy of plantigrades, unguligrades, and digitigrades. Digitigrade and unguligrade animals have relatively long carpals and tarsals, and the bones which correspond to the human ankle are thus set much higher in the limb than in a human. In a digitigrade animal, this effectively lengthens the foot, so much so that what are often thought of as a digitigrade animal's "hands" and "feet" correspond to only the human fingers or toes. Digitigrade locomotion is responsible for the distinctive hooked shape of dog legs.

Plantigrade animals, such as humans, normally walk with the soles of their feet on the ground. Unguligrade animals, such as horses and cattle, walk only on the distal-most tips of their digits. Digitigrade animals walk on their distal and intermediate phalanges; more than one segment of the digit makes contact with the ground, either directly (as in birds) or via paw-pads (as in dogs and cats).