Files and links (1)
Published VersionCC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Predictive musculoskeletal simulations reveal the mechanistic link between speed, posture and energetics among extant mammals
Nature Communications, Vol.15, pp.1-10
2024
PMID: 39366939
Abstract
An unusual pattern among the scaling laws in nature is that the fastest animals are neither the largest, nor the smallest, but rather intermediately sized. Because of the enormous diversity in animal shape, the mechanisms underlying this have long been difficult to determine. To address this, we challenge predictive human musculoskeletal simulations, scaled in mass from the size of a mouse (0.1 kg) to the size of an elephant (2000 kg), to move as fast as possible. Our models replicate patterns observed across extant animals including: (i) an intermediate optimal body mass for speed; (ii) a reduction in the cost of transport with increasing size; and (iii) crouched postures at smaller body masses and upright postures at larger body masses. Finally, we use our models to determine the mechanical limitations of speed with size, showing larger animals may be limited by their ability to produce muscular force while smaller animals are likely limited by their ability to produce larger ground reaction forces. Despite their bipedal gait, our models replicate patterns observed across quadrupedal animals, suggesting these biological phenomena likely represent general rules and are not the result of phylogenetic or other ecological factors that typically hinder comparative studies.
Details
- Title
- Predictive musculoskeletal simulations reveal the mechanistic link between speed, posture and energetics among extant mammals
- Authors
- Christofer J Clemente (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringFriedl De Groote - KU LeuvenTaylor J M Dick - The University of Queensland
- Publication details
- Nature Communications, Vol.15, pp.1-10
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41467-024-52924-z
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- PMID
- 39366939
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- All data are available in the main text or the supplementary materials, and can also be found here https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25921297.v3. Source data are provided with this paper.
- Grant note
- FWO Research Foundation—Flanders Junior Research Grant G0B4222N (F.D.G.)
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991066165802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
47 Record Views