History Main / BizarreAlienLocomotion

* In DavidBrin's ''{{Uplift}}'' series g'Keks have wheels.

* {{Oddworld}} literally breathes this trope, with several species (Sligs, Glukkons, Gloktigi, etc.) walking on their hands, and that's only scratching the surface.

-->Zero Punctuation, Spore

* AlanDeanFoster's ''Icerigger'' trilogy features the Tran, a race of [[SingleBiomePlanet ice world]] natives with claws on their feet that act as natural ice skates, and sails beneath their arms that let them catch the wind for propulsion.

* Tigger from the ''Winnie the Pooh'' stories is depicted bouncing around on his spring-like tail in cartoon adaptations.

* The fan lizard from ''Avatar''.

** Most of the animals featured in the book have bizarre ways of locomotion. For example, the Flipstick is a 60-meter long pole-like creature that moves by flipping itself on both ends. The Gyrosprinter is a two-legged animal with one leg in the front and the other in the back. It supposedly evolved from a four-legged ancestor and both of it's front legs and back legs fused together. There is another creature that starts out with four legs but the hind legs atrophy as it matures and it's hind ''skid'' develops.

* In ''[[TheDresdenFiles Ghost Story]]'', wraiths that aren't under the direct control of a more powerful entity are described as drifting along ethereally, just barely out of contact with the ground, and occasionally touching down with their toes to push themselves along. When commanded, they fly freely, suggesting that it's simply their lack of individual willpower that hinders their independent motion.

* The Dufflepuds from ''TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'' have one giant foot at the center of their bodies, so move about with tremendous jumps.

* HPLovecraft's Elder Things from ''AtTheMountainsOfMadness'' could somehow travel through ''outer space'' using their fan-shaped wings. The original text depicts them [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace flying through the aether]], but {{Fanon}} insists that their wings are biological solar sails.

* HPLovecraft's Elder Things from ''The Mountains Of Madness'' could somehow travel through ''outer space'' using their fan-shaped wings. The original text depicts them flying through the aether, but {{Fanon}} insists that their wings are biological solar sails.

** The people of Wiral are made of electricity. They normally just float about but prefer to do high-speed travel through electric wires.

* ''{{Lexx}}'':
** Cluster lizards have long flat segmented bodies and roll into hoops that can roll rapidly. They're also predators, so you don't want to get in their way. When Zev/Xev accidentally acquires Cluster lizard DNA she also acquires the ability to curl up and roll fast, though it's not demonstrated until season 3.
* The mythical "hoop snake" of folklore moves the same way, holding its tail in its mouth and rolling like a wheel.

* The fan lizard from ''Film/Avatar''.

Subtrope of BizarreAlienBiology.

* Like the Dugs above, night stalkers from the [[{{Mockumentary}} future-evolution book]] ''After Man'' walk bipedally on their forelimbs, while fighting with the long claws on hindlimbs that reach forward. Justified in that they evolved from bats that became flightless due to isolation on an island chain, so their forelimbs were the only ones strong enough to walk on.

* In ''AfterManAZoologyOfTheFuture'', the juvenile parashrew grows a parachute made of hair on the tip of its tail, and uses this to catch the mountain winds, dispersing over distances such a tiny animal couldn't otherwise traverse. The parachute-hairs fall out once they find a territory of their own.

* ''{{Tremors}} 3'':
** The jet-propelled [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Assblasters]].

** Most of the animals featured in the book have bizarre ways of locomotion. For example, the Flipstick is a 60-meter long pole-like creature that moves by flipping itself on both ends. The Gyrosprinter is a two-legged animal with one leg in the front and the other in the back. It supposedly evolved from a four-legged ancestor and it's both of it's front legs and back legs fused together. There is another creature that starts out with four legs but the hind legs atrophy as it matures and it's hind ''skid'' develops.

* One of the alien races from the [[PiersAnthony Cluster]] series roll around on a single large sphere embedded at the bottom of their tear-shaped bodies.

* Wheelers in ''Oz'' have wheels instead of hands & feet and locomote by rolling around on them.

** The mythical "hoop snake" of folklore moves the same way, holding its tail in its mouth and rolling like a wheel.
* Art: MC Escher's lithographs ''Curl-Up'' and ''House of Stairs'' feature creatures called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curl-up "curl-ups,"]] which resemble metallic caterpillars with plated bodies and can either curl up and roll, or walk around their weird environment on six humanoid legs.

* In David Brin's ''Uplift'' series g'Keks have wheels.

* The cover art for ''The Science Of Discworld III'' shows men riding on a giant tortoise with wheels in place of its feet. This was probably created by the God of Evolution, who'd been working on a wheeled elephant when he'd previously appeared in ''The Last Continent''.

* The Dufflepuds from ''[[TheChroniclesOfNarnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' have one giant foot at the center of their bodies, so move about with tremendous jumps.

* The Rhinogrades from ''[[{{Mockumentary}} Snouters]]'' are a groups of fictitious mammals, some of which walk on their multiple nasal trunks.

* At one point in JohnCarpenter's ''TheThing'', a piece of the alien uses an elongated tongue to drag itself along the floor.

* Wayne Douglas Barlowe's ''Expedition'' features an alien that hops around on one leg.

* ''Meteos'':

** Used by another race of ''[[PiersAnthony Cluster]]'' series aliens.

* ''Meteos'':

* Cluster lizards in ''{{Lexx}}'' have long flat segmented bodies and roll into hoops that can roll rapidly. They're also predators, so you don't want to get in their way. When Zev/Xev accidentally acquires Cluster lizard DNA she also acquires the ability to curl up and roll fast, though it's not demonstrated until season 3.

* Kitonaks from ''StarWars'' move by extending and contracting their toes. It's very slow, but then again Kitonaks are never in a hurry.

* WebComics: One of the species in ''UnicornJelly'' and spinoffs has a tube-shaped body with a foot at each end, and they ambulate by placing one foot on the ground and then arching over to place the other one, etc.
** Leeches crawl and climb in a similar fashion in RealLife.

* In ''Meteos'', the inhabitants of Forte (Faulte in Japan) move about by leaping high into the air and using their parachute-like bodies to slowly descend.

* The jet-propelled [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Assblasters]] from ''{{Tremors}} 3''.
** Also used by another race of ''[[PiersAnthony Cluster]]'' series aliens.

* Globin from ''Meteos'' is a planet-sized living thing; it has an intelligent, sentient civilization comprised of leukocytes traveling around Globin's bloodstream.

Examples: