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Unread 06-10-2013   #3
Drachen
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Re: Question on animal biology for a tf story.

Mammal skeletons are all relatively similar except for highly adapted animals like whales. They have most of the same bones, just differently shaped, proportioned and sometimes numbered (ex. tail bones, fingers/toes). If you look at a picture of the two skeletons side-by-side it's pretty easy to tell what bone from one is equivalent to what bone on the other.

For upright walking, the skull attachment to the neck is on the bottom of the skull in humans, not the back like in most other mammals. Our backbone is highly inflexible and has a unique S curve near the base to it to support our weight. Our hip bone is pretty unique. It's shaped like a bowl rather than being flat-ish. The only other big difference with respect to walking is that dogs walk on their toes and humans walk on the flats of their feet. The extra kink in dog legs is the equivalent of their wrist and ankle.
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