stability
- Asymmetrical gait kinematics of free-ranging callitrichine primates in response to changes in substrate diameter and orientation
Summary: Free-ranging callitrichine primates adjust aspects of asymmetrical gait kinematics to promote stability when moving over arboreal substrates varying in diameter and orientation angle.
- Fly eyes are not still: a motion illusion in Drosophila flight supports parallel visual processing
Summary: In fly flight, self-motion can give rise to a visual motion illusion, driven by perceptual aliasing. Robust object tracking on illusory panoramas supports parallel visual motion processing in flight.
- High aerodynamic lift from the tail reduces drag in gliding raptors
Summary: Aerodynamic lift from gliding hawk and owl tails, revealed by tracking helium bubbles, is inconsistent with passive stability or minimizing induced drag, but indicates a role in reducing viscous drag.
- Quantifying koala locomotion strategies: implications for the evolution of arborealism in marsupials
Highlighted Article: Koalas possess a unique morphology for a marsupial; examination of their locomotion is used to determine the extent to which they have converged with other arboreal mammals such as primates.
- Ground reaction forces intersect above the center of mass even when walking down visible and camouflaged curbs
Highlighted Article: In human walking, ground reaction forces are directed to a point above the center of mass to promote whole-body stability. This is also observed in camouflaged curb negotiation.
- Preferred walking speed on rough terrain: is it all about energetics?
Highlighted Article: On rough terrain, humans do not choose their walking speed based solely on metabolic energy minimization.
- Avoiding topsy-turvy: how Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) fly through upward gusts
Summary: Hummingbirds flying through intense upward gusts experience pronounced downward pitching motions (i.e. nose dives). In response, they interrupt flapping, hold the wings dorsally, and angle and fan the tail.
- Limping following limb loss increases locomotor stability
Highlighted Article: It is possible to increase the stability of a gait by limping over unstable phases and maximizing the time spent in the stable phases of a stride.
- Scaling of avian bipedal locomotion reveals independent effects of body mass and leg posture on gait
Summary: We review how body size and leg morphology influence walking and running gaits across 21 species of birds spanning a >2500× range in mass from painted quail to ostrich.
- Asymmetry costs: effects of wing damage on hovering flight performance in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta
Summary: Asymmetric wing damage in hawkmoths is approximately twice as costly as symmetric damage.