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PeteriDish — groundhopper - jump phases
Published: 2012-03-02 14:13:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 622; Favourites: 11; Downloads: 5
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Description
I decided to draw a simple diagram showing the phases of groundhopper jump.1. Neck held in a pronounced "S" curve, forelegs retracted, midlegs and hindlegs on the ground, hind knees high in the air.
2.Neck starts to straighen up to reduce drag, only hindlegs still touch the ground, midlegs are extended and have already aided in generating energy for the jump and are now moving backwards to reduce drag, forelegs partially extended.
3. Neck and forelegs are fully extended, hindlegs continue to propell the body into the air and are almost fully extended.
4. Now even the hindlegs are off the grond, pointing backwards to reduce drag. This is the "mid-air" picture.
5. Just prior the landing, midlegs move forwards to work as shock absorbers during the landing. Prey is quickly snatched by the forelegs.
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Comments: 32
It would be cool to see an animation of the creatures movement.
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well I can't animate at all, someone would have to do that for me...
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Thank you very much! I'll be posting another similar critter quite soon!
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It should be up quite soon, but it all depends on whether I will like the sketch(es) or not.... Give me 'bout 30 minutes. If nothing pops up, then it'll be here tomorrow.
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Okay... It doesn't seem to look as well as I thought... I'll see if I will release it or not, it starts to seem like too much spins of the same wheel if you know what I mean. 
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Well, I've been busy responding to comments, so give me some more time, I think this TOP SECRET critter can make it to my gallery in a few tens of minutes from now.
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I picture them leaping around in the field outside my house ant thare awesome
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wow, I like it when creatures are very NEW while they are not unnatural (like having 100 eyes and four pairs of wings) I mean it looks fairly simple, but it's awesome!
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Thank you! I was pleasantly surprised too with how this critter turned out! I think the gesshopper-like legs helped to avoid resemblance to frogs, and the mantis-like forelegs don't look out of place because the animal has another insect-like feature (the hindlegs) 
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yeah, I love these sudden ideas...
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Yeah! It's a great help when they occur!
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it is! I haven't had many recently
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Don't worry, they'll come!
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let's cross fingers and wait! You can try listing for "strange animals" or something to see whether some of the results gives you inspiration.
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That's what I do and it seems to work! I look at various animals and try to look for some peculiar adaptations
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yeah, I sometimes kinda "evolve" animals in my brain...
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Well, all speculative animals have evolved in the creator's brain right?
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well, maybe not all of us, but many of us do!
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Intriguing. Are the "claws" on the forelegs used to grab or pierce the prey? Or might there be variations in the specie (one varient grabs prey and then kills it, the other uses the claws to rend or pierce the prey, turning the leap into a killing blow)?
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I think there definitely could be a variation in preferred killing strategy, my initial idea was using the forelegs as "immobilizers" and the beak as the important killing tool, but the first claw on the forelegs could be spear-like and long in some other species which would use the forelegs themselves as killing tooks, kind of like casowary, even though this bird uses it for defense only. It's a great idea! Thank you!
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That would be nifty to see, slight variations in the "claw" structure and power location of the forelegs could do all sorts of things. Thinking on birds that use their feet as killing tools, there is the secretary bird, and the roadrunner, to name two.
On another note (because you tend to get my brain spinning on bio possibilities), could there be a secondary use (ie, to hold down a mate) for the primary adaptation of the forelegs?
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I think it could be for both of the reasons, the forelegs could of course be used for mating (it would be a face-to-face mating, because the cloaca is above the beak), but the "ands" would originally start having a more generalized shape. 
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All of these sound like critters that could exist at one time, though in different niches and/or environments. It's awesome to think of all the possibilities of life types, and see them both in extant, and extinct critters. It's even more awesome to see you building a world that contains such complexity.
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Many thanks! and sorry for the typos
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