Changes: Biped

Revision as of 10:07, 8 July 2008

A biped is any organism which uses two limbs as its primary means of terrestrial locomotion. Types of bipedal motion include walking, running, or hopping, as long as only two appendages (usually called legs) are used.

While the term biped can generally be interchangeable with the term "humanoid," this is not always so. Most humanoids are bipeds, but there are many non-humanoid bipedal species, including the ostrich and tyrannosaurus of Earth, the M-113 creature (TOS: "The Man Trap"), and the Mugato of the planet Neural (TOS: "A Private Little War").

Note that shapeshifters such as Changelings are bipedal when in humanoid form, but are not in their natural state.

Many of the highly-evolved life forms encountered by humans have remarked on their bipedal locomotion, including the Cytherian who contacted the USS Enterprise-D (TNG: "The Nth Degree") and the Caretaker, who referred to humans as a "minor bipedal species." (VOY: "Caretaker") Q Junior used the term 'biped as a (less than affectionate) term for humanoids (VOY: "Q2"). This suggests that evolving beyond the need for bipedal locomotion is a significant milestone in the evolution of a species.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+A '''biped''' is any organism which uses two limbs as its primary means of terrestrial locomotion. Types of bipedal motion include walking, running, or hopping, as long as only two appendages (usually called legs) are used.
-{{merge with|humanoid}}
+While the term '''biped''' can generally be interchangeable with the term "[[humanoid]]," this is not always so. Most humanoids are bipeds, but there are many non-humanoid bipedal species, including the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ostrich ostrich] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus tyrannosaurus] of [[Earth]], the [[M-113 creature]] ({{TOS|The Man Trap}}), and the [[Mugato]] of the [[planet]] [[Neural]] ({{TOS|A Private Little War}}).
-{{pna-unformatted}}
+Note that shapeshifters such as [[Changeling|Changelings]] are bipedal when in humanoid form, but are not in their natural state.
-[[Q (Junior)|Q Junior's]]. (less than) affectionate term for humanoids.
+Many of the highly-evolved life forms encountered by humans have remarked on their bipedal locomotion, including the [[Cytherian]] who contacted the {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701-D|-D}} ({{TNG|The Nth Degree}}) and the [[Caretaker]], who referred to humans as a "minor bipedal species." ({{VOY|Caretaker}})  [[Q (Junior)|Q Junior]] used the term '''biped'' as a (less than affectionate) term for humanoids ({{VOY|Q2}}). This suggests that evolving beyond the need for bipedal locomotion is a significant milestone in the evolution of a species.
-See ({{VOY|Q2}})
+See also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bipedalism bipedalism] at [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]