Thanks to some very recent research, it also sheds a lot of light on why slime mould forms rotating spirals. Mathematics can reveal unexpected unities an nature, unities that go much further than mere coincidence or analogy. There are all sorts of reasons for wanting to understand animal gaits. Another reason, very in tune with the modern age, is that animal locomotion offers useful hints to the designers of legged robots. There are almost as many ways to get about as there are organisms.
Bacteria propel themselves through water using tiny rotating helical screws, like a ship.
Single-celled organisms such as Paramecium can choose their direction of motion by waving their whiplike cilia. Snakes and eels wriggle their way through space on waves of muscular contraction. The sidewinder, a kind of snake, rolls its way across the hot desert like a coiled spring. The wheel spider rolls across the desert like an eight-spoked wheel. Horses begin with a walk, but when that gait becomes inefficient they switch to a trot, and at top speed they gallop.