locomotion
- Surprising simplicities and syntheses in limbless self-propulsion in sand
Summary: Dry sandy environments present challenges to animal locomotion, but are also amenable to several useful experimental and theoretical methods, which can generate uncommonly rich insights into animal locomotion.
- Walking kinematics in the polymorphic seed harvester ant Messor barbarus: influence of body size and load carriage
Summary: Scale effect rather than morphological differences explain the variability in load-carrying performance in different-sized individuals in the polymorphic ant species Messor barbarus.
- Variation in limb loading magnitude and timing in tetrapods
Summary: Variation in proprioceptive sensory systems across tetrapods influences loading behaviors of the limbs.
- Effects of a titin mutation on force enhancement and force depression in mouse soleus muscles
Summary: Force enhancement and force depression are reduced in muscles from mice with a deletion in N2A titin, suggesting that titin plays a role in history-dependent muscle properties that contribute to natural movements.
- Do the enlarged hind legs of male thick-legged flower beetles contribute to take-off or mating?
Highlighted Article: Male flower beetles have large hind legs that they use to grasp females securely during mating, acting like a vice grip; these legs do not enhance performance during take-off relative to females.
- Stepping behaviour contributes little to balance control against continuous mediolateral trunk perturbations
Summary: When exposed to continuous, sinusoidal mediolateral trunk perturbations, subjects choose to maintain a constant step width and reduce their body centre of mass excursions to maintain stability.
- Reeling in the prey: fishing behaviour in an orb web spider
Highlighted Article: A rare orb spider reels trapped prey in towards itself; its approach strategy shows that it can discriminate between heavy and light prey.
- Pectoral and pelvic girdle rotations during walking and swimming in a semi-aquatic turtle: testing functional role and constraint
Summary: During locomotion, the turtle pectoral girdle rotates more than the pelvis. While pelvic girdle rotations are larger on land, the pectoral girdle rotates similarly during swimming and walking.
- Load carrying with flexible bamboo poles: optimization of a coupled oscillator system
Highlighted Article: An optimization model predicts body–load interactions that compare to experienced rural Vietnamese farmworkers carrying substantial loads suspended on flexible bamboo poles. A work-minimizing strategy indicates energy-saving gait adaptations.
- Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales
Editors' Choice: Motion-sensing tags attached to baleen whales paired with unoccupied aerial system (drone) imagery demonstrate that while oscillatory stroking frequency decreases with size, absolute swimming speed remains consistent over an order of magnitude body mass range.