Editing Plantigrade (section)

{{short description|Walking with the toes and metatarsals flat on the ground}}

{{Refimprove|date=June 2017}}
[[image:Plantigrade.png|right|151px|thumb|Portion of a human skeleton, showing plantigrade habit]]
In terrestrial [[animal]]s, '''plantigrade locomotion''' means [[walking]] with the toes and [[metatarsal]]s flat on the ground. It is one of three forms of locomotion adopted by terrestrial [[mammal]]s. The other options are [[digitigrade]], walking on the [[toe]]s and fingers with the [[heel]] and [[wrist]] permanently raised, and [[ungulate|unguligrade]],  walking on the [[nail (anatomy)|nail]] or nails of the toes (the [[hoof]]) with the heel/wrist and the [[digit (anatomy)|digit]]s permanently raised. The leg of a plantigrade mammal includes the bones of the upper leg ([[femur]]/[[humerus]]) and lower leg ([[tibia]] and [[fibula]]/[[Radius (bone)|radius]] and [[ulna]]). The leg of a digitigrade mammal also includes the [[metatarsal]]s/[[metacarpal]]s, the bones that in a human compose the arch of the foot and the palm of the hand. The leg of an unguligrade mammal also includes the [[phalanges]], the finger and toe bones.
  
Among extinct animals, most early mammals such as [[Pantodonta|pantodonts]] were plantigrade. A plantigrade foot is the primitive condition for mammals; [[digitigrade]] and [[unguligrade]] locomotion evolved later. Among archosaurs, the [[pterosaurs]] were partially plantigrade and walked on the whole of the hind foot and the fingers of the hand-wing.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pterosaur.net/terrestrial_locomotion.php |title = Pterosaur.net :: Terrestrial Locomotion}}</ref> Out of the plantigrade animals, only a few, such as humans, kangaroos and certain rodents, are obligate [[Bipedalism|bipeds]], while most others are functional bipeds.