GILLIS, Gary B.; Mount Holyoke College: Strain and Activation in the Thigh Muscles of Guinea Pigs During Level, Incline and Decline Locomotion There is a well-documented relationship between body size and limb posture in mammalian quadrupeds. Larger animals adopt a more upright limb configuration during locomotion whereas smaller animals� limbs are held in more flexed […]

CARLSON, Kristian J.; Universit�t Z�rich-Irchel: Modelling arboreal locomotion: the effect of limb abduction on substrate reaction forces during lemurid quadrupedal locomotion. Arboreal locomotion requires movement through three-dimensional settings in which substrates and superstrates are irregularly positioned. As a consequence, animals adopt a variety of limb postures during locomotion, often abducting limbs at proximal joints. Studies […]

MORENO, C.A.*; BIEWENER, A.A; Harvard University; Harvard University: Mechanics and kinematics of 90° turns in goats The ability of animals to maneuver in their environment plays an important role in their survival, especially during predator-prey interactions. For terrestrial animals, vigorous changes of direction, linear accelerations and running turns can be almost daily requirements, but these […]

CARRIER, D/R; Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City: Lucy�s diminutive legs. Australopithecines had short legs. Relatively short hindlimbs characterize most large bodied primates (Jungers, 1984). The short legs of australopithecines are generally thought to represent arboreal specialization. There are reasons, however, to suspect that the evolution of relatively short legs may also be due to […]

PONTZER, H.; Harvard University: Linking Locomotor Energetics to Limb Design in Terrestrial Animals. How does limb design, specifically limb length, affect the energy cost of locomotion? Recently, I proposed a new model linking locomotor cost to limb length for terrestrial animals, and tested the model in humans. Here I present a new study applying this […]

LEE, David V.; Harvard University: Elasticity in the joints and whole legs of goats vs. dogs: trading economy for precision? While dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are excellent long-distance runners and terrain generalists, goats (Capra hircus) are specialists on rough, mountainous terrain. The disparate mechanical requirements of these two niches suggest that associated structural and functional […]

WALTER, RM*; CARRIER, DR; Univ. of Utah: Effects of fore-aft body mass distribution on acceleration A quadruped�s ability to apply propulsive ground reaction forces (GRF) and accelerate rapidly may be limited by 1) muscle power, 2) foot traction, and 3) ability to counteract the nose-up pitching torque due to propulsion. If foot slippage or pitching […]

ROBERTS, T.J.*; GABALDON, A.M.; Brown Uniiversity; Colorado State, Pueblo: Does rate of force production increase with running speed in individual muscles? It has been proposed that increases in metabolic energy cost of running with speed are explained by the higher rates of energy consumption in muscle fibers that produce force more rapidly. This idea is […]

HANNA, JB*; GRIFFIN, TM; Duke University; Duke University: Climbing energetics in primates: effects of body size Non-human primates move in a three-dimensional environment, but little is known about the physiological demands of climbing. In this study, we examined the metabolic power of climbing in non-human primates spanning more than an 8-fold range in mass. We […]

KENNEDY, Natalia K*; FARTASH, Arian; VAN VALKENBURGH, Blaire ; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Los Angeles: Adaptations of the cervical spine to prey capture in canines Modern canines practice two different kinds of prey capture: pounce/pursuit and pursuit predation. Typically, smaller canines use the pounce/pursuit method and […]