Talk:Arthropod leg

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Contents

[edit] Table of possible arthropod leg homologies

Hypothetical
ancestor		 Ancestral
hexapod		 Insects Spiders Crustaceans Millipede Limulus Scorpions Collembola
 ? epicoxa  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? epicoxa
precoxa subcoxa  ?  ? precoxa  ?  ?  ? subcoxa
coxa coxa coxa coxa coxa coxa coxa coxa coxa
trochanter trochanter trochanter trochanter basis trochanter trochanter trochanter trochanter
prefemur prefemur - - ischium prefemur - - -
femur femur femur femur merus femur femur femur femur
patella patella - patella - - patella patella -
tibia tibia tibia tibia carpus tibia tibia tibia tibia
 ? basitarsus - metatarsus - - - basitarsus
=metatarsus		 foot-complex
tarsus eutarsus tarsus tarsus propodus tarsus tarsus telotarsus
=tarsus
pretarsus post-tarsus  ?  ? dactylus claw - pretarsus

[edit] Sources

[edit] Discussion

[edit] Queries

  • Are these homologies correct?
  • Is the precoxa present in other groups?
  • Must the ancestor have had an additional metatarsus?
  • Are the insect tarsomeres homologous with whole leg segments (e.g crustacean dactylus)?

[edit] Further mergers

I realised today that we've got separate articles for biramous and uniramous. Sihce these terms are only meaningful in discussions of arthropod legs, I suggest that their material be brought here as an extra section. I don't know of any good pictures showing a biramous leg, but one would be useful. --Stemonitis 14:06, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Oppose merger of articles re: segments of insect leg

I opposed these mergers on the respective articles talk pages. I have reverted them all. Squamate 14:29, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

To answer your concerns, a merger need not result in a loss of references - these could easily be brought over to arthropod leg. Nor would there necessarily be any dilution of information, since insects have their own section in that article. The separate articles are stubs and are unlikely to grow into anything much longer. They would however, fit perfectly into the arthropod leg article. I can see little reason for preserving their separateness. --Stemonitis 07:32, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
I agree, they would fit very nicely in this article. IronChris | (talk) 14:15, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Loss of leg statistics

Mention the average number of legs left for various arthropods by the time of their death. For spiders it seems oh, 7.2, down from 8.0 at birth, (which also mention (8).)

Also mention that it seems like no big deal for spiders to lose a leg or two.

Jidanni 01:07, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Biramous: humans?

Mention if humans are biramous or uniramous or neither or both. Jidanni 13:28, 15 July 2007 (UTC)