What characterizes the development of the whiptail lizard's limbs tuned for locomotor needs?
Answer
Long, slender limbs built for short, extremely fast bursts
Whiptail lizards are fundamentally built like miniature sprinters, perfectly adapted for rapid traversal of arid and semi-arid environments. This functional requirement dictates the structure of their legs, which are characterized as long and slender. These limbs are acutely tuned to enable the lizards to achieve extremely fast bursts of speed over short distances, which is crucial for quickly covering open ground and evading capture.
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