She's got le-egs! (ZZ Top)
"All things being equal, leg length is one of the major determinants of cost. If two animals are identical except for leg length, the animal with longer legs is more efficient."
That's Herman Pontzer speaking, an assistant professor of physical anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Pontzer has developed a mathematical model for calculating energy costs for two and four-legged animals. His research was published in a recent issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology.
From Science Daily: The fossil record shows that two million years ago, there was a big increase in leg length in early humans. Pontzer suggests that one reason for this increase could have been the energy saved by having longer legs. "If you greatly increase the distance that you travel each day, then you'd expect evolution to act on walking efficiency," he says. "That way, the energy you save on travel can be spent instead on survival and reproduction."
New media comment: At the bottom of this story, this note appears: Note: This story has been adapted from a news release. Great to see this forthright solution to the release-posing-as-news issue. Here's the link for the release.
longer legs more efficient
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2 comments:
Leg length is only a small part of energetics/efficiency.
You might check out my site for some more information on biomechanics, efficience, energetics, and running.
I will be posting some information you might find interesting.
I am a researcher in running biomechanics, energetics, and injuries.
http://biomechanicslab.blogspot.com/
Hi Toran, thanks for stopping by. The link he provided leads to his post with a nutshell summary of different schools of thought. Always nice to link up with another biomechanics geek!
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