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Are #mice and #rats plantigrade or digitigrade?
I've seen a loooot of studies that code them as plantigrade (e.g.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1814329116)
... but their ankle is well above the ground (e.g. video from https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00042)
What am I missing? 🐀 #biomechanics #mammals
For the record, I acknowledge that the wrist contacts the ground, so the forelimbs are unambiguously plantigrade. To my eyes, though, the hindlimbs are digitigrade.
Also, not everyone agrees in the literature; some authors explicitly say mice are digitigrade - e.g.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2018.00061