Abstract
Many questions remain concerning the drivers underlying selection of gait and posture. As examples:
What are the benefits to the stiff human foot? What are the implications of foot size? – why do shorter humans have proportionally larger feet? Why do humans show a discrete walk-run transition, and horses a discrete walk-trot transition, but ostriches and elephants not? Is there an advantage to the elbows-back, knees-forward posture of quadrupedal mammals? Why are small animals crouched if being upright reduces the structural demands of weight support? These and similar questions will be approached using kinetic and kinematic measurements, theoretical developments and modelling.
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