Subject collection: Comparative biomechanics of movement
- Sticking to it: testing passive pull-off forces in waterfall-climbing fishes across challenging substrates
Summary: Analysis of adhesion and detatchment in four species of Hawaiian gobies across substrates differing in roughness and wettability reveals varying climbing abilities and higher shear pull-off forces on rough substrates.
- Trunk and leg kinematics of grounded and aerial running in bipedal macaques
Summary: In macaques, coordination of leg and trunk segments for bipedal locomotion indicates a running gait with limited ability for energy storage.
- The influence of sagittal trunk lean on uneven running mechanics
Summary: Trunk posture- and step-specific adjustments in global and local running mechanics are influenced by the anticipation of changes to running pattern, probably reflecting the utilization of task-dependent strategies during perturbed running.
- Thermal robustness of biomechanical processes
Summary: Mechanical processes that replace chemical processes in organismal movement can result in performance that is robust to changing temperature.
- Elastic wing deformations mitigate flapping asymmetry during manoeuvres in rose chafers (Protaetia cuprea)
Summary: During aerial turning, the chordwise flexibility of rose chafer wings increases the torque of each wing while improving maneouvring stability by mitigating the asymmetry in wing pitch between contralateral wings.
- Pursuit predation with intermittent locomotion in zebrafish
Highlighted Article: Predatory zebrafish adjust their heading during intermittent bursts in their motion toward evasive prey by modulating the maximum tail excursion in proportion to the prey's bearing.
- There and back again – a zebra's tale
Highlighted Article: Modelling of high-accuracy GPS recordings shows zebra moving between grazeland and water can navigate using multiple distinct routes; they do not need to use the same route every journey.
- Accelerometry predicts muscle ultrastructure and flight capabilities in a wild bird
Highlighted Article: Comparison of flight characteristics with flight muscle ultrastructure in a seabird reveals that wing beat frequency is negatively correlated with fibre diameter and average air speed is positively correlated with the number of nuclei per fibre.
- The phase shift between potential and kinetic energy in human walking
Summary: The effect of phase shift between kinetic and gravitational potential energy of the center of mass of the body in human walking.
- Flight muscle power increases with strain amplitude and decreases with cycle frequency in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)
Highlighted Article: During flapping flight, birds can increase wing velocity through increasing either wingbeat frequency or stroke amplitude. Work loop experiments demonstrate that increasing velocity via strain amplitude consistently increases net power.