How would a tripedal animal walk?

Animals on Earth have 2 or 4 legs they use for walking. On another world, however, animals have 3. I want to know how these animals will walk. How will their legs be placed and how will they move them to walk? For instance, maybe they would have 2 legs in front and one in the back, 1 in front and 2 in the back, or another setup entirely. What would the gait look like? Perhaps they alternate between 2 legged and 1 legged steps or maybe move 1 leg at a time in a 3-step cycle. While there are many potential answers I want to know which arrangement would be most effective and therefore most likely to evolve.

Assume that the 3 legs form a triangle (although not necessarily an equilateral one) rather than a line. Let's also say the animals evolved on an Earth-like world with equivalent gravity. I imagine that different sized creatures with different walking requirements might have different setups and gaits and even one animal may have multiple gaits just like we see on Earth. While I'm interested in the potential differences between large and small, fast and slow, let's focus this question to an animal species of roughly human size and with human needs to walk long distances and occasionally move faster.

posted almost 6 years ago

Mike Nichols‭

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