LOCOMTION AND MOVEMENT

Notes By: Ms. Rizwana Khan

Movement is a significant feature of living beings. We must be aware that movement in

plants is different from that in the animals. The simplest form of movement is
protoplasmic streaming which is found in unicellular organisms such as amoeba. Some
organisms have different structures for movement such as cilia in Paramecium, Flagella
in Chlamydomonas and Tentacles in Hydra. Other organisms like domestic and wild
animals including humans can move their eyelids, tongue, jaws, hands and legs. And
many times, this movement results in change in location or place and such voluntary
movement is called locomotion. The different types of locomotory movements are
swimming, walking, flying and running.
Besides, the parts of the bodies that help in locomotion also help in other activities such
as cilia in Paramoecium help in movement of food through Cytopharynx, tentacles in
Hydra are used for capturing prey and also for locomotion and humans use limbs for
changing body postures and locomotion as well. The above observations suggest that
movements and locomotion cannot be studied separately. The two may be linked by
stating that all locomotions are movement but all movements are not locomotion. This is
because locomotion is concerned with the change in location or place whereas movement
can be associated with only that of any body part and the whole body still remains
constant.

TYPES OF MOVEMENTS:

Animals need to perform locomotion for various reasons including for the search of food,
mating, shelter, breeding ground and favorable climatic condition and safety from
predators or enemies. Therefore, the different methods of locomotion that animals
perform depend upon their habitats and demand of the situation.

1. Amoeboid Movement - It is seen in some specialized cells such as macrophages

and white blood cells. Pseudopodia are responsible for this type of movement in
Amoeba due to protoplasmic streaming and microfilaments are cytoskeletal
elements are also responsible for this kind of movement.
2. Ciliary Movement - It occurs in most internal tubular organs lined by ciliated
epithelium. Example, in trachea, cilia move in coordinated manner to move
foreign substances inhaled and dirt by moving. Another example is seen in the
movement of eggs through the female reproductive tract which is lined by cilia.
3. Muscular Movement - It can be seen in the eyelids, tongue, jaws, hands and legs.
Contractile muscles help in bodily movements and locomotion of an organism.
Locomotion requires a perfect coordination of three kinds of systems in organisms,
namely muscular system, skeletal system and neural system.
MUSCLE
Muscle constitutes 40-50 percent of the body weight of a person. Muscle is a
specialized tissue originating from the mesoderm. It is the only tissue consisting of
properties including contractility, extensibility, excitability and elasticity. Muscles help in
body movements as well as that of internal organs. It helps in stretching, bending,
walking and other physical activities. Muscles are classified according to their location
(Skeletal, Visceral or Cardiac), Appearance (Stripped or Smooth) and Nature of
Regulation (Voluntary or Involuntary).
Skeletal muscles are closely associated with the skeletal components of the body.
Their activities are under the voluntary control of nervous system hence is called as
voluntary muscle. Also, they have striped appearance under the microscope and hence are
known as striated muscle.  It is long, thin, multinucleated; fibres are crossed with a
regular pattern of fine red and white lines, giving the muscle a distinctive appearance.
They are primarily involved in locomotory actions and changes of body patterns.
Visceral muscle tissue, or smooth muscle, is tissues associated with the internal
organs of the body and are located in the inner walls of hollow visceral organs of the
body like alimentary canal, reproductive tract, etc. They do not exhibit any striation and
are smooth in appearance. Hence, they are called as smooth muscle or non striated
muscle. Their activities are not under voluntary control of the nervous system and
therefore known as involuntary muscle. They help in transportation of food through
digestive tract and gametes through genital tract.
Cardiac muscles are muscle of heart. Many cardiac cells assemble in a branching
pattern to form cardiac muscle. Based on appearance, cardiac muscles are striated.
Cardiac muscles differ from skeletal muscle in that it exhibits rhythmic contractions and
is not under voluntary control and therefore are involuntary in nature.
Each organized skeletal muscle in human body is made up of a number of muscle bundle
or fascicles held together by a common collagenous tissue layer called fascia. Each
muscle bundle contains a number of muscle fibres which is lined by plasma membrane
called sacrolemma enclosing the sacroplasm. Muscle fiber is a syncitium as the
sacrolplasm contains many nuclei.