ArticleeLife2017
Work minimization accounts for footfall phasing in slow quadrupedal gaits.
Article in eLife, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Three-Dimensional Limb Kinematics in Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloths (Bradypus variegatus) During Suspensory Quadrupedal Locomotion.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Modern three-dimensional digital methods for studying locomotor biomechanics in tetrapods.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Review
- Pump the brakes! The hindlimbs of three-toed sloths decelerate and support suspensory locomotion.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- Mediterranean Spur-Thighed Tortoises (Biology · 2022Article
- Three Characteristics of Cheetah Galloping Improve Running Performance Through Spinal Movement: A Modeling Study.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2022Article
- Competing Models of Work in Quadrupedal Walking: Center of Mass Work is Insufficient to Explain Stereotypical Gait.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2022Article
- Evolutionary history of quadrupedal walking gaits shows mammalian release from locomotor constraint.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Minimalist analogue robot discovers animal-like walking gaits.Bioinspiration & biomimetics · 2020Article
- An extension to the collisional model of the energetic cost of support qualitatively explains trotting and the trot-canter transition.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2020Article
- The Possibility of Zero Limb-Work Gaits in Sprawled and Parasagittal Quadrupeds: Insights from Linkages of the Industrial Revolution.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2020Article
- An inelastic quadrupedal model discovers four-beat walking, two-beat running, and pseudo-elastic actuation as energetically optimal.PLoS computational biology · 2019Article
- The grazing gait, and implications of toppling table geometry for primate footfall sequences.Biology letters · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Quadrupeds, like most bipeds, tend to walk with an even left/right footfall timing. However, the phasing between hind and forelimbs shows considerable variation. Here, we account for this variation by modeling and explaining the influence of hind-fore limb phasing on mechanical work requirements. These mechanics account for the different strategies used by: (1) slow animals (a group including crocodile, tortoise, hippopotamus and some babies); (2) normal medium to large mammals; and (3) (with an appropriate minus sign) sloths undertaking suspended locomotion across a range of speeds. While the unusual hind-fore phasing of primates does not match global work minimizing predictions, it does approach an only slightly more costly local minimum. Phases predicted to be particularly costly have not been reported in nature.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.