Editing Jumping (section)

===Limb morphology===

In terrestrial animals, the primary propulsive structure is the legs, though a few species use their tails.  Typical characteristics of jumping species include long legs, large leg muscles, and additional limb elements.

Long legs increase the time and distance over which a jumping animal can push against the substrate, thus allowing more power and faster, farther jumps. Large leg muscles can generate greater force, resulting in improved jumping performance. In addition to elongated leg elements, many jumping animals have modified foot and ankle bones that are elongated and possess additional joints, effectively adding more segments to the limb and even more length.

Frogs are an excellent example of all three trends: frog legs can be nearly twice the body length, leg muscles may account for up to twenty percent of body weight, and they have not only lengthened the foot, shin and thigh, but extended the ankle bones into another limb joint and similarly extended the hip bones and gained mobility at the sacrum for a second 'extra joint'. As a result, frogs are the undisputed champion jumpers of vertebrates, leaping over fifty body lengths, a distance of more than eight feet.<ref>
{{cite journal
  | last = Zug, G. R.
  | title = Anuran Locomotion: Structure and Function. II. Jumping performance of semiacquatic, terrestrial, and arboreal frogs|journal=Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology |issue=276|pages=iii–31  | date = 1978 }}
</ref>