Galloping may be synonymous with sprinting stallions, but a new study showed that it had its origins in prehistoric fish, and first evolved almost half a billion years ago.

Galloping is a form of “asymmetrical gait” where the timing of footfalls is uneven, and other examples include bounds by rabbits and crutching by fish.

It was previously thought to have evolved in mammals about 200 million years ago. However, recent research has found that some reptiles are also able to co-ordinate their limbs in a non-symmetrical way, hinting at a much earlier origin.

Crocodiles, for example, can gallop on land if in danger and reach speeds north of 10mph, while turtles have been recorded bounding around.

Origin of the galloping species

To determine when this locomotive quirk first evolved, scientists at the College of Charleston and the New York Institute of Technology in the US looked through past studies of fossils.

They built a family tree of more than 300 species spanning backwards from modern vertebrates, including mammals, fish, marsupials and more.

A score of zero was allocated to those that only used evenly timed walks, trots and runs, and a one was given to those that showed any sign of moving asymmetrically.

Building the evolutionary tree

The team then ran simulations to find out when they appeared in the evolutionary tree and found the earliest ancestors of almost all modern animals which lived 472 million years ago were capable of a form of asymmetric gait, but the exact way they did this remains unknown.

Prof Eric McElroy, the study’s lead author from the College of Charleston, said: “In total, we compiled data from 308 species. It took months to work out all the kinks in the analysis.”

The study is published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.