biomechanics
- Hand pressures during arboreal locomotion in captive bonobos (Pan paniscus)
Highlighted Article: Bonobo digit pressures are significantly greater during arboreal knuckle-walking than during either vertical or suspensory locomotion, and the thumb experiences low or no pressure during all locomotor modes.
- Three-dimensional analysis of the fast-start escape response of the least killifish, Heterandria formosa
Summary: The fast-start response of the least killifish entails a rich three-dimensional kinematic repertoire including complex combinations of roll, pitch and yaw motions.
- How does a slender tibia resist buckling? Effect of material, structural and geometric characteristics on buckling behaviour of the hindleg tibia in stick insect postembryonic development
Summary: Quantitative data on changes in biomechanical properties of hindleg tibia cuticle during the entire life of the stick insect Carausius morosus indicate strategies preventing buckling of the tibia.
- Reducing gravity takes the bounce out of running
Highlighted Article: During running, humans take higher leaps in normal gravity than in reduced gravity, in order to optimally balance the competing costs of stance and leg-swing work.
- Neuromuscular mechanisms of an elaborate wing display in the golden-collared manakin (Manacus vitellinus)
Summary: We pinpoint the main skeletal muscles associated with the production of an elaborate gestural courtship display in a tropical bird, the golden-collared manakin.
- Kinematics of chisel-tooth digging by African mole-rats
Summary: During digging, mole-rats anchor their upper incisors in the soil while the lower incisors are lifted through the soil. A quick, nose-down rotation of the head finishes an excavation cycle.
- Humeral loads during swimming and walking in turtles: implications for morphological change during aquatic reinvasions
Summary: Turtle humeri experience reduced torsional loads during swimming compared with terrestrial walking. Such reductions may have facilitated the transition from tubular to flattened limb bones in secondarily aquatic tetrapods.
- Escaping blood-fed malaria mosquitoes minimize tactile detection without compromising on take-off speed
Highlighted Article: Malaria mosquitoes have a specialized take-off strategy that is both fast and extremely stealthy; they can use this strategy to successfully escape from a host after blood-feeding.
- Take-off mechanisms in parasitoid wasps
Summary: Parasitoid wasps use three strategies to take off: propulsion by rapid leg movements, propulsion by flapping wing movements and a combination of the two. Leg movements provide the most energy-efficient mechanism.
- A novel, bounding gait in swimming turtles: implications for aquatic locomotor diversity
Summary: The pleurodire turtle Emydura subglobosa can swim using a bounding gait, potentially facilitated by longer muscle fascicle lengths than in other species, and this may have implications for the locomotor evolution of the lineage.