Metachronal waves of legs
Have a look at this centipede walking. You can clearly see waves of legs propagating forward along the body, from back to front, as the centipede walks forward. The motion of the legs is known as a metachronal rhythm , appearing as traveling waves caused by actions happening in squence. It's even more obvious with a millipede. In each case, a leg in back leads the one in front. Is this universal? Four-legged creatures walk this way too. A horse leads with the hind legs when walking or galloping. When trotting, however, a horse moves diagonally-opposite legs in unison and the footfalls are balanced with no leg leading, as can be seen in this video: Try crawling on your hands and knees. When crawling at a comfortably brisk pace, you may notice your legs leading the arms. If you try to lift up an arm before lifting up a leg on the same side, you can certainly do it, but it feels unnatural. Oddly, six-legged insects and spiders don't walk this way. Inse