'Deep-sea spiders' that walk through the water
Deep-sea isopods of the family Munnopsidae exhibit four modes of swimming: forward striding, slow backward pedalling, fast backward pedalling and escape, the first two of which use asymmetric phases of leg movement. Instead of moving the left and right limbs (pereopods, P2&shy;P7) of a segment in-phase (e.g. RP2LP2, RP3LP3, RP4LP4), as do most aquatic insects, leg movement is more like that of fast-walking insects, where closest synchrony occurs between diagonal limbs (e.g. RP2LP3, RP3LP4, RP4LP2). This is similar to the alternating tripod gait used by many animals on land to prevent them from toppling over. It therefore seems likely that this group of isopods learned to walk before they could swim.
Marshall
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Diebel
C