Fig. 6. Effective mechanical advantages (EMA; ratio of anatomical to GRF moment
arms, where GRF is ground reaction force) at the elbow (A), knee (B) and ankle
(C) for the phylogenetically constrained sample of primates and the diverse
sample of mammals from Biewener
(1989). EMA for the elbow and
knee increase with body mass (in kg) for both primate and non-primate samples.
This indicates that body mass has a similar influence on EMA (and consequently
on the muscle force required to resist gravity) in the phylogenetically
constrained and diverse samples. In contrast, ankle EMA does not increase with
body mass in the primate sample, but does increase significantly in the
diverse mammalian sample.