The three-dimensional locomotor dynamics of African (<i>Loxodonta africana</i>) and Asian (<i>Elephas maximus</i>) elephants reveal a smooth gait transition at moderate speed

Ren, Lei; Hutchinson, John R.

doi:10.1098/rsif.2007.1095

Cited by 50 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…African (Loxodonta africana) and Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) represent the upper limit of body mass in extant terrestrial mammals, and large bulls can weigh up to 7500kg (Nowak, 1999). Although physiological measurements on elephants are technically challenging, experiments using well-trained captive elephants allow modeling of the biomechanical and energetic characteristics of locomotion in the largest terrestrial mammals (Alexander et al, 1979;Langman et al, 1995;Hutchinson et al, 2003;Hutchinson et al, 2006;Ren and Hutchinson, 2008;Ren et al, 2010;Genin et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimum cost of transport in Asian elephants: do we really need a bigger elephant?

Langman

Rowe

Roberts

et al. 2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYBody mass is the primary determinant of an animalʼs energy requirements. At their optimum walking speed, large animals have lower mass-specific energy requirements for locomotion than small ones. In animals ranging in size from 0.8g (roach) to 260kg (zebu steer), the minimum cost of transport (COT min ) decreases with increasing body size roughly as COT min ϰbody mass (M b ) -0.316±0.023 (95% CI). Typically, the variation of COT min with body mass is weaker at the intraspecific level as a result of physiological and geometric similarity within closely related species. The interspecific relationship estimates that an adult elephant, with twice the body mass of a mid-sized elephant, should be able to move its body approximately 23% cheaper than the smaller elephant. We sought to determine whether adult Asian and sub-adult African elephants follow a single quasi-intraspecific relationship, and extend the interspecific relationship between COT min and body mass to 12-fold larger animals. Physiological and possibly geometric similarity between adult Asian elephants and sub-adult African elephants caused body mass to have a no effect on COT min (COT min ϰM b 0.007±0.455). The COT min in elephants occurred at walking speeds between 1.3 and ~1.5ms . The quasi-intraspecific relationship between body mass and COT min among elephants caused the interspecific relationship to underestimate COT min in larger elephants.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimum cost of transport in Asian elephants: do we really need a bigger elephant?

Langman

Rowe

Roberts

et al. 2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…) that minimize the energetic and biomechanical costs of locomotion in elephants (Langman et al, 1995;Langman et al, 2012;Hutchinson et al, 2003;Hutchinson et al, 2006;Ren and Hutchinson, 2008;Genin et al, 2010). Seasonal variations in mean walking speeds (Table2) were not statistically significant (ANOVA, d.f.=2, F=1.10, P=0.35).…”

Section: Walking Speed and Active Metabolic Heat Productionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Heat storage in Asian elephants during submaximal exercise: behavioral regulation of thermoregulatory constraints on activity in endothermic gigantotherms

Rowe

Bakken

Ratliff

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYGigantic size presents both opportunities and challenges in thermoregulation. Allometric scaling relationships suggest that gigantic animals have difficulty dissipating metabolic heat. Large body size permits the maintenance of fairly constant core body temperatures in ectothermic animals by means of gigantothermy. Conversely, gigantothermy combined with endothermic metabolic rate and activity likely results in heat production rates that exceed heat loss rates. In tropical environments, it has been suggested that a substantial rate of heat storage might result in a potentially lethal rise in core body temperature in both elephants and endothermic dinosaurs. However, the behavioral choice of nocturnal activity might reduce heat storage. We sought to test the hypothesis that there is a functionally significant relationship between heat storage and locomotion in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), and model the thermoregulatory constraints on activity in elephants and a similarly sized migratory dinosaur, Edmontosaurus. Pre-and post-exercise (N=37 trials) measurements of core body temperature and skin temperature, using thermography were made in two adult female Asian elephants at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, LA, USA. Over ambient air temperatures ranging from 8 to 34.5°C, when elephants exercised in full sun, ~56 to 100% of active metabolic heat production was stored in core body tissues. We estimate that during nocturnal activity, in the absence of solar radiation, between 5 and 64% of metabolic heat production would be stored in core tissues. Potentially lethal rates of heat storage in active elephants and Edmontosaurus could be behaviorally regulated by nocturnal activity.

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“…23, 37-43). The slower-running species consist of (i) those that never gallop on land: the afrotherian Loxodonta and Elephas (19,44,45), Orycteropus (21,46), the monotreme echidnas (41), and the artiodactyl Hyemoschus (20,47) and Hippopotamus (which only gallops in the water, ref. 22); and (ii) those that rarely, or infrequently, gallop: the artiodactyl Ovibos (48,49), Cephalophus dorsalis (20,47,50), and Tragulus (little known, but supposed to be slow, refs.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast running restricts evolutionary change of the vertebral column in mammals

Galis

Carrier

Alphen

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The mammalian vertebral column is highly variable, reflecting adaptations to a wide range of lifestyles, from burrowing in moles to flying in bats. However, in many taxa, the number of trunk vertebrae is surprisingly constant. We argue that this constancy results from strong selection against initial changes of these numbers in fast running and agile mammals, whereas such selection is weak in slower-running, sturdier mammals. The rationale is that changes of the number of trunk vertebrae require homeotic transformations from trunk into sacral vertebrae, or vice versa, and mutations toward such transformations generally produce transitional lumbosacral vertebrae that are incompletely fused to the sacrum. We hypothesize that such incomplete homeotic transformations impair flexibility of the lumbosacral joint and thereby threaten survival in species that depend on axial mobility for speed and agility. Such transformations will only marginally affect performance in slow, sturdy species, so that sufficient individuals with transitional vertebrae survive to allow eventual evolutionary changes of trunk vertebral numbers. We present data on fast and slow carnivores and artiodactyls and on slow afrotherians and monotremes that strongly support this hypothesis. The conclusion is that the selective constraints on the count of trunk vertebrae stem from a combination of developmental and biomechanical constraints.M any mammalian taxa show a remarkable conservation of the presacral vertebral count (the sum of cervical, thoracic, and lumbar vertebrae; Fig. 1). For instance, carnivores almost invariably have 27 vertebrae, and artiodactyls have 26 presacral vertebrae. However, in some taxa, in particular afrotherians, there is considerable interspecific variation (1, 2). Narita and Kuratani (1) proposed that the presacral vertebral count is conserved because of developmental constraints, as is also the case for the cervical vertebral count (3, 4). We propose that developmental constraints are indeed involved and that they are interacting with biomechanical problems resulting from homeotic transformations. Homeotic transformations are necessary for changes of the presacral vertebral count (5), although it is often incorrectly thought that these changes can be solely the result of increases or decreases in the number of vertebrae of a certain region. This assumption is not true, except for vertebrae in the tail region, which is the part of the vertebral column formed last. Homeotic transformations are necessarily involved, because of the sequential head-to-tail generation of the embryonal segments from which the vertebrae develop (somites) and the patterning of these segments under the influence of head-to-tail signaling gradients (6-8). This process implies that if there is an increase in the presacral count, for instance from 26 to 27, this is caused by a homeotic transformation of the 27th vertebra from a sacral into a lumbar one, regardless of whether the total count of vertebrae changes or not (see ref. 5 for a more detailed ...

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The three-dimensional locomotor dynamics of African (Loxodonta africana) and Asian (Elephas maximus) elephants reveal a smooth gait transition at moderate speed

Cited by 50 publications

References 66 publications

Minimum cost of transport in Asian elephants: do we really need a bigger elephant?

Minimum cost of transport in Asian elephants: do we really need a bigger elephant?

Heat storage in Asian elephants during submaximal exercise: behavioral regulation of thermoregulatory constraints on activity in endothermic gigantotherms

Fast running restricts evolutionary change of the vertebral column in mammals

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