Uncoupling the correlates of locomotor costs: a factorial approach

Locomotor energetics and leg length in hominid bipedality

Because bipedality is the quintessential characteristic of Hominidae, researchers have compared ancient forms of bipedality with modern human gait since the first clear evidence of bipedal australopithecines was unearthed over 70 years ago. Several researchers have suggested that the australopithecine form of bipedality was transitional between the quadrupedality of the African apes and modern human bipedality and, consequently, inefficient. Other researchers have maintained that australopithecine bipedality was identical to that of Homo. But is it reasonable to require that all forms of hominid bipedality must be the same in order to be optimized? Most attempts to evaluate the locomotor effectiveness of the australopithecines have, unfortunately, assumed that the locomotor anatomy of modern humans is the exemplar of consummate bipedality. Modern human anatomy is, however, the product of selective pressures present in the particular milieu in which Homo arose and it is not necessarily the only, or even the most efficient, bipedal solution possible. In this report, we investigate the locomotion of Australopithecus afarensis, as represented by AL 288-1, using standard mechanical analyses. The osteological anatomy of AL 288-1 and movement profiles derived from modern humans are applied to a dynamic model of a biped, which predicts the mechanical power required by AL 288-1 to walk at various velocities. This same procedure is used with the anatomy of a composite modern woman and a comparison made. We find that AL 288-1 expends less energy than the composite woman when locomoting at walking speeds. This energetic advantage comes, however, at a price: the preferred transition speed (from a walk to a run) of AL 288-1 was lower than that of the composite woman. Consequently, the maximum daily range of AL 288-1 may well have been substantially smaller than that of modern people. The locomotor anatomy of A. afarensis may have been optimized for a particular ecological niche-slow speed foraging-and is neither compromised nor transitional.

Morphological conservation of limb natural pendular period in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris): implications for locomotor energetics

For better understanding of the links between limb morphology and the metabolic cost of locomotion, we have characterized the relationships between limb length and shape and other functionally important variables in the straightened forelimbs and hindlimbs of a sample of 12 domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Intra-animal comparisons show that forelimbs and hindlimbs are very similar (not significantly different) in natural pendular period (NPP), center-of-mass, and radius of gyration, even though they differ distinctly in mass, length, moment-of-inertia, and other limb proportions. The conservation of limb NPP, despite pronounced dissimilarity in other limb characteristics, appears to be the result of systematic differences in shape, forelimbs tending to be cylindrical and hindlimbs conical. Estimating limb NPP for other species from data in the literature on segment inertia and total limb length, we present evidence that the similarity between forelimbs and hindlimbs in NPP is generally true for mammals across a large size range. Limbs swinging with or near their natural pendular periods will maximize within-limb pendular exchange of potential and kinetic energy. As all four limbs of moderate- and large-size animals swing with the same period during walking, maximal advantage can be derived from the pendular exchange of energy only if forelimbs and hindlimbs are very similar in NPP. We hypothesize that an important constraint in the evolution of limb length and shape is the locomotor economy derived from forelimbs and hindlimbs of similar natural pendular period.