ArticleJournal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology2021
Leg loss decreases endurance and increases oxygen consumption during locomotion in harvestmen.
Article in Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Chemical Secretion Use Varies Among Species but Lacks a Straightforward Relationship With Other Defenses in Neotropical Opiliones.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Evolutionary patterns in squamate mitogenomes: Are selective regimes associated with fossoriality and limblessness?Genetics and molecular biology · 2026Article
- Moving in an Uncertain World: Robust and Adaptive Control of Locomotion from Organisms to Machine Intelligence.Integrative and comparative biology · 2024Review
- The Phylogenetic Relationships of Major Lizard Families Using Mitochondrial Genomes and Selection Pressure Analyses in Anguimorpha.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Past energy allocation overwhelms current energy stresses in determining energy allocation trade-offs.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Metabolic rates of the Asian shore crabEcology and evolution · 2022Article
- The Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Three Sphenomorphinae Species (Squamata: Scincidae) and the Selective Pressure Analysis on Mitochondrial Genomes of LimblessAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- The type of leg lost affects habitat use but not survival in a non-regenerating arthropod.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Locomotion and kinematics of arachnids.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
Animal movements are highly constrained by morphology and energetics. In addition, predictable bodily damage can constrain locomotion even further. For example, for animals moving on land, losing legs may impose additional costs. We tested if losing legs affects the distance travelled over time (endurance) and the metabolic costs of locomotion (oxygen consumption) in Nelima paessleri harvestmen. These arachnids voluntary releases legs (i.e., autotomy) in response to predation attempts. We used flow-through respirometry as animals moved on a treadmill inside a sealed chamber. We found that endurance decreased gradually with an increasing number of legs lost. Interestingly, oxygen consumption increased only for harvestmen that lost three legs, but not for individuals that lost only a single leg. These results have different ecological and evolutionary implications. Reduced endurance may impair an animal's ability to continue moving away from potential predators, while increased oxygen consumption makes movement costlier. Our findings suggest that individuals have a threshold number of legs that can be lost before experiencing measurable energetic consequences. Overall, our findings illustrate how animals respond to morphological modifications (i.e., damage) that affect the physiology of locomotion.
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Registered trials
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