Hobbits' feet
« [Hobbits] wear so shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly) »
J.R.R Tolkien, The Hobbit, Chapter I, An unexpected party
Just as the morphology of hobbits' feet - characterised by very long metatarsals and a large surface area in contact with the ground - helps to justify their reputation as 'burglars', an observation of the animals' legs is useful in understanding how they move through space.
Similarly, whilst no hobbit footprints have ever been found, it is not uncommon to discover a deer, roe deer, wild boar or other wild animal footprint along a path, but traces of extinct animals can also be found.
These fossil traces offer precious information on the musculoskeletal system of animals that are now extinct, their posture, their speed...We still need to identify them!
