Terrestrial locomotion energy costs vary considerably between species: no evidence that this is explained by rate of leg force production or ecology.

ABSTRACT: Inter-specifically, relative energy costs of terrestrial transport vary several-fold. Many pair-wise differences of locomotor costs between similarly-sized species are considerable, and are yet to be explained by morphology or gait kinematics. Foot contact time, a proxy for rate of force production, is a strong predictor of locomotor energy costs across species of different size and might predict variability between similarly sized species. We tested for a relationship between foot contact time and metabolic rate during locomotion from published data. We investigated the phylogenetic correlation between energy expenditure rate and foot contact time, conditioned on fixed effects of mass and speed. Foot contact time does not explain variance in rate of energy expenditure during locomotion, o

SUBMITTER: Halsey LG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6345976 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature