Researchers have discovered that toy animals, as well as many museum displays created by folks who should know better, position animals’
legs incorrectly.
It may not strike you as odd that Eadweard Muybridge‘s famous photographic depictions of the real movements made by a wide array of species wouldn’t quite make it to the design desks of the world’s cheapest toymakers, but shouldn’t museums know to check a reference when positioning an animal?
The New York Times is ready to set the record straight once and for all:
The way four-legged animals walk has been well known since the 1880s, when Eadweard Muybridge’s motion-capture photographs revealed the sequence of leg movements. They walk this way: the left hind leg moves forward, followed by the left foreleg, right hind leg and right foreleg, in order. [Link]
Let’s get on this for the good of the next generation, shall we? No need to come down like a load of bricks, there are ways to deal with this issue that are less proscriptive. "Wow, honey, what a cute doggie! So sad that he has a broken leg, I guess she’s about to fall down again, right? Poor puppy."
The image above is a graphic from the study. The full text is here, with supplemental data is available here in PDF form.
