In terrestrial
animals,
plantigrade locomotion means
walking with the toes and
metatarsals flat on the ground. It is one of three forms of locomotion adopted by terrestrial mammals. The other options are
digitigrade, walking on the
toes with the
heel and
wrist permanently raised, and
unguligrade, walking on the
nail or nails of the toes (the
hoof) with the heel/wrist and the
digits permanently raised. The leg of a plantigrade mammal includes the bones of the upper leg (
femur/
humerus) and lower leg (
tibia and
fibula/
radius and
ulna). The leg of a digitigrade mammal also includes the
metatarsals/
metacarpals, 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
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, walking on the whole of the hind foot and the fingers of the hand-wing.