Bundle, M.W.*; Dial, K.P.: The metabolic cost of flight in budgies: revisiting an outlier Measuring the metabolic cost of flight has been possible for a little more than thirty years. Since V. A. Tucker’s classic work with budgerigars, fewer than a dozen other species of birds have been flown in wind tunnels in order to […]

Roberts, T.J.*; Scales, J.A.: The Source of Power for Acceleration in Turkeys. Many of the features that make some muscle-tendon units effective as springs during running – long tendons, short muscle fibers, articulations across more than one joint – may make them ill-suited to performing mechanical work. It has been suggested that the work required […]

DIAL, K.P.: On the Origin and Ontogeny of Bird Flight: Developing Wings Assist Vertical Running Discussions on the origin of avian flight fall into two philosophical camps: arboreal (tree-down) or cursorial (ground-up) hypotheses, both of which are dominated by paleontological evidence that fails to adequately address logical incremental adaptive stages necessary to achieve fully developed […]

DALEY, M.A.; CARD, G.; BIEWENER, A.A.: Effective Mechanical Advantage of the guinea fowl hindlimb during steady and variable speed running Animals live in an unpredictable environment and rarely move at constant speeds. Thus, muscle function under non-steady conditions (acceleration, deceleration) is a critical component of locomotor system design. Previous studies have suggested that, during steady […]

Hedrick, T.L.*; Tobalske, B.W.; Biewener, A.A.: 3D Kinematic Analysis of Lift Production Over a Range of Speeds in Ring-necked Doves and Cockatiels A central problem limiting our understanding of the aerodynamics of avian flight is the lack of 3D kinematic data of wing motion. The lift generated by a wing is proportional to 1) the […]

Lee, D. V.: Relating limb geometry to ground reaction force in running quadrupeds: A design for stability? A defining characteristic of legged locomotion is forward movement of the body over the feet, which remain more-or-less fixed with respect to the ground. This mandates that, in quadrupeds, the limbs retract about their proximal joints (i.e., hip […]

Hsieh, S.T.: Ontogenetic 3-D kinematics of water running in green basilisk lizards (Basiliscus plumifrons) Most research on tetrapod locomotion has focused on movement over solid substrates. The question of how animals locomote on fluid substrates is just beginning to be explored. Basilisk lizards are known for their ability to run across the surface of water […]

CARRIER, D.R.*; LEE, D.V.; WALTER, R. M.: INFLUENCE OF ROTATIONAL INERTIA ON THE TURNING PERFORMANCE OF THEROPOD DINOSAURS. Turning agility of theropod dinosaurs may have been severely limited by the large rotational inertia of their horizontal trunks and tails. Bodies with mass distributed far from the axis of rotation have much greater rotational inertia than […]

CARRANO, M. T.: Homology and the evolution of non-avian dinosaur locomotion Non-avian dinosaurs diversified throughout the Mesozoic from a single bipedal, parasagittal-limbed ancestor. Their 140-my radiation spanned over three orders of magnitude in body size and included eight major clades. In spite of this, diversification within the dinosaurian locomotor apparatus appears to have been comparatively […]

Higham, T.E.*; Davenport, M.; Mattingly, W.B.; Jayne, B.C.: Effects of turning angle on sprinting performance of three ecomorphs of arboreal lizards Most studies on the locomotion of animals are for straight, steady speed movements; however, many species often perform maneuvering or intermittent locomotion in their natural habitats. Lizards, including several arboreal species, have been common […]