Three-dimensional representation of the left wing of an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) during diving.
Movie 1
The result of our three-dimensional kinematic study of diving puffins (Johansson, L. C. and Aldrin, B. S. W. (2002). Kinematics of diving Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica, L.): evidence for an active upstroke. J. Exp. Biol. 205, 371–378) is here illustrated by a stick figure with the start image showing a ventral/lateroventral view. The spheres represent the position of the tail tip and the rods represent the lines between the wrist and the wing tip and between the elbow and the wrist. The motion goes from right to left (i.e. starting with the red colour and ending with the green colour). Note the swept wings and the rotation of the wings at the turning phases of the stroke cycle. The three-dimensional coordinates were produced after manually synchronizing the dorsal and lateral views by examining the velocity and acceleration curves. This procedure may result in a small timing error between the dorsal and lateral view but it will only have a minor effect on the illustration.
