Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34234959›Full record

ArticleRoyal Society open science2021

Convex hull estimation of mammalian body segment parameters.

Samuel J Coatham, William I Sellers, Thomas A Püschel

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Royal Society open science, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
4.3field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. New perspectives on head and neck allometry and ecomorphology in tetrapods.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026
    Review
  3. New perspectives on body size and shape evolution in dinosaurs.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. A Whole-Body Musculoskeletal Model of the Mouse.IEEE access : practical innovations, open solutions · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Samuel J CoathamFaculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-4597-6210
William I SellersFaculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-2913-5406
Thomas A PüschelSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6BX, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-2231-2297
University of Manchester · GBUniversity of Oxford · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Obtaining accurate values for body segment parameters (BSPs) is fundamental in many biomechanical studies, particularly for gait analysis. Convex hulling, where the smallest-possible convex object that surrounds a set of points is calculated, has been suggested as an effective and time-efficient method to estimate these parameters in extinct animals, where soft tissues are rarely preserved. We investigated the effectiveness of convex hull BSP estimation in a range of extant mammals, to inform the potential future usage of this technique with extinct taxa. Computed tomography scans of both the skeleton and skin of every species investigated were virtually segmented. BSPs (the mass, position of the centre of mass and inertial tensors of each segment) were calculated from the resultant soft tissue segments, while the bone segments were used as the basis for convex hull reconstructions. We performed phylogenetic generalized least squares and ordinary least squares regressions to compare the BSPs calculated from soft tissue segments with those estimated using convex hulls, finding consistent predictive relationships for each body segment. The resultant regression equations can, therefore, be used with confidence in future volumetric reconstruction and biomechanical analyses of mammals, in both extinct and extant species where such data may not be available.

Indexed as

biomechanicsbody segment parametersconvex hullsMammaliamultibody dynamic analysis

Identifiers

PMID34234959
PMCPMC8242930
OpenAlexW3177482807

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.