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Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, 1(8), p. e54784, 2013

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054784

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Size-Related Changes in Foot Impact Mechanics in Hoofed Mammals

Journal article published in 2013 by Sharon Elaine Warner, Phillip Pickering, Olga Panagiotopoulou ORCID, Thilo Pfau, Lei Ren, John Richard Hutchinson ORCID, Lei Ren O Panagiotopoulou P Pickering SE Warner T Pfau Jr Hutchinson
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Foot-ground impact is mechanically challenging for all animals, but how do large animals mitigate increased mass during foot impact? We hypothesized that impact force amplitude scales according to isometry in animals of increasing size through allometric scaling of related impact parameters. To test this, we measured limb kinetics and kinematics in 11 species of hoofed mammals ranging from 18–3157 kg body mass. We found impact force amplitude to be maintained proportional to size in hoofed mammals, but that other features of foot impact exhibit differential scaling patterns depending on the limb; forelimb parameters typically exhibit higher intercepts with lower scaling exponents than hind limb parameters. Our explorations of the size-related consequences of foot impact advance understanding of how body size influences limb morphology and function, foot design and locomotor behaviour.