Locomotion

Motility is a fundamental property of all animals. Many animals are mobile, others may be sessile (attached to the substratum) but will have organs or organelles that are in motion. While many Precambrian animals were sessile some fossil forms were clearly mobile since there are preserved tracks associated with the fossil.

Motility depends on the supply of energy to molecular motors. The video below explains the operation of the molecular motor in vertebrate skeletal muscle – invertebrate muscles operate in very much the same way.

 

Amoeboid movement and the operation of cilia and flagella depend on slightly different molecular motors – these are introduced in sections ujjnder these titles.

Some modes of locomotion introduced in other sections are:

Movement around a hydrostatic skeleton

Creeping

Burrowing

Walking and Swimming

Jet propulsion

Flight