Reaching high speed with tiny steps and the powerful "fifth" leg - kangaroo

The kangaroo's tail propels and powers pentapedal locomotion

A Simon Fraser University study on how kangaroos use their tails as a ‘fifth’ leg is providing new insight into the diversity of biological movement, and specific insight into why we walk the way we do.

Published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, the study, led by professor Max Donelan of SFU’s Locomotion Laboratory, found kangaroos, commonly viewed as hoppers, move with a “pentapedal” gait, planting their tails on the ground in combination with their front and hind legs.