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Leaping is an important locomotor behavior for arboreal taxa such as primates, providing means to cross discontinuous substrates, escape predation, and/or capture prey. Primates that leap frequently have relatively longer hindlimbs than those taxa that leap less often. However, it is unknown if this pattern holds across a broader phylogenetic sample that includes non-primate arboreal taxa and non-primate specialized leapers. Here, we examine if relative hindlimb length and segmental proportions correlate with locomotor category across a sample of small-bodied (800g) mammals. Lengths of six hindlimb elements (summing to total hindlimb length) were measured on micro-computed tomography scans. Total hindlimb length was regressed against body mass to calculate relative hindlimb length. Segmental proportions were calculated as the ratio of femoral, tibial, and pedal (the sum of calcaneal, cuboidal, metatarsal, and phalangeal lengths) lengths to total hindlimb length. We found that while three arboreal/scansorial taxa (common marmosets, greater dwarf lemurs, and palm squirrels) exhibit short hindlimbs relative to their body mass, all other arboreal and scansorial taxa have relatively long hindlimbs. Most arboreal, scansorial, terrestrial, and fossorial taxa distribute length evenly across segments (femur, tibia, and pes each comprise 33% of total hindlimb length). Saltatorialists (e.g., jerboas and kangaroo rats) were the only locomotor group with exceptional proportions, with pedal segments contributing 38% of total hindlimb length. These results suggest to us that segmental proportions may distinguish specialized ricochetal hoppers from taxa that leap sporadically, while relative hindlimb length may predict general leaping ability across mammals.more » « less
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