biomechanics
- Hearing on the fly: the effects of wing position on noctuid moth hearing
Summary: Noctuid moth wing position affects neural hearing sensitivity. No significant differences in eardrum movement occur; therefore, differences are hypothesized to be due to internal factors such as muscle tension.
- Inverse dynamic modelling of jumping in the red-legged running frog, Kassina maculata
Summary: Experimental data and inverse dynamic modelling demonstrate how forward thrust and elevation are produced in the frog hind limb, allowing frogs to jump at a wide range of angles.
- Metabolic cost of human hopping
Highlighted Article: When two-legged hopping is used as a model to determine the relationship between metabolic cost and muscle mechanics, muscle impulse (time integral of muscle force) characterizes the energetic cost per hop best.
- Mechanics of the thorax in flies
Summary: An overview of the structure and mechanics of thorax in insects, with specific emphasis on flies. We specifically explore how the flight apparatus has evolved to meet the steep demands of flight in smaller insects.
- Archerfish use their shooting technique to produce adaptive underwater jets
Summary: Archerfish use the same mouth opening maneuver to produce and to adapt aerial and underwater jets.
- Longitudinal and transversal displacements between triceps surae muscles during locomotion of the rat
Summary: Differences in anatomy, morphology and neural drive between rat ankle plantar-flexors cause substantial intermuscular displacement during locomotion, which may affect mechanical interactions between muscle bellies and tendons.
- How the bending kinematics of swimming lampreys build negative pressure fields for suction thrust
Highlighted Article: A comparison of the swimming and hydrodynamics of control lampreys to lampreys whose spinal cord was transected mid-body reveals the hydrodynamic advantage of actively controlled swimming.
- Validation of XMALab software for marker-based XROMM
Summary: New motion analysis software offers greater precision and reproducibility than existing tools for tracking markers in videos, yielding greater sensitivity for measuring 3D motions with XROMM animations.
- Bristles reduce the force required to ‘fling’ wings apart in the smallest insects
Highlighted Article: Long bristles on the wings of the smallest insects reduce the force required to ‘fling’ the wings apart while still maintaining lift.
- Preferred gait and walk–run transition speeds in ostriches measured using GPS-IMU sensors
Highlighted Article: Ostriches moving freely overground prefer to walk very slowly and run over a broad range of speeds, with gait transitions at slower relative speeds than humans.