ArticleNature communications2024
Dynamic similarity and the peculiar allometry of maximum running speed.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- The body mass-maximum speed relationship and the athletic capability of giant proboscideans and sauropods.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Sensorimotor delays constrain robust locomotion in a 3D kinematic model of fly walking.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Reconstructing dinosaur locomotion.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Beyond power limits: the kinetic energy capacity of skeletal muscle.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Review
- Bionic Multi-Legged Robots with Flexible Bodies: Design, Motion, and Control.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Predictive musculoskeletal simulations reveal the mechanistic link between speed, posture and energetics among extant mammals.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Optimal Gearing of Musculoskeletal Systems.Integrative and comparative biology · 2024Article
- Muscle-Driven Predictive Physics Simulations of Quadrupedal Locomotion in the Horse.Integrative and comparative biology · 2024Article
- Understanding Trophic Interactions in a Warming World by Bridging Foraging Ecology and Biomechanics with Network Science.Integrative and comparative biology · 2024Article
- Rethinking the physiological cross-sectional area of skeletal muscle reveals the mechanical advantage of pennation.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- The effect of muscle ultrastructure on the force, displacement and work capacity of skeletal muscle.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Animal performance fundamentally influences behaviour, ecology, and evolution. It typically varies monotonously with size. A notable exception is maximum running speed; the fastest animals are of intermediate size. Here we show that this peculiar allometry results from the competition between two musculoskeletal constraints: the kinetic energy capacity, which dominates in small animals, and the work capacity, which reigns supreme in large animals. The ratio of both capacities defines the physiological similarity index Γ, a dimensionless number akin to the Reynolds number in fluid mechanics. The scaling of Γ indicates a transition from a dominance of muscle forces to a dominance of inertial forces as animals grow in size; its magnitude defines conditions of "dynamic similarity" that enable comparison and estimates of locomotor performance across extant and extinct animals; and the physical parameters that define it highlight opportunities for adaptations in musculoskeletal "design" that depart from the eternal null hypothesis of geometric similarity. The physiological similarity index challenges the Froude number as prevailing dynamic similarity condition, reveals that the differential growth of muscle and weight forces central to classic scaling theory is of secondary importance for the majority of terrestrial animals, and suggests avenues for comparative analyses of locomotor systems.
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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.