tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60493056936886797092024-03-05T19:22:57.105-08:00Biomechanics Downunderchristoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-54824158014494383272020-01-27T20:57:00.001-08:002020-01-27T20:57:32.379-08:00Weeks 3 + 4 of the big year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ok, so it turns out birding is hard. I mean you walk down the street and think there are birds literally everywhere, but until you start trying to count them you dont realise that they are just the same 6 birds. I only managed to add another 14 species in these two weeks, despite visiting the Bellbird bushland, west of Brisbane, and the Kendron Wetlands near the airport, bringing me to a meagre 59 species.<br />
Maybe i just suck since my dad seems to be doing quite well on his big year, and even my honours student Jordan, who only started two weeks ago is up to 45 species. Not good enough.<br />
<br />
<br />
<style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; table-layout: fixed; width: 0px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><colgroup><col width="211"></col><col width="132"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Striated heron"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Striated heron</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Toowong"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Toowong</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fig bird"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Fig bird</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Toowong"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Toowong</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"brahminy kite"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">brahminy kite</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"North Pine river"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">North Pine river</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Black face cuckcoo shrike"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Black face cuckcoo shrike</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kawana"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kawana</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Long billed corella"}" style="background-color: #f1f0f0; color: #444950; font-family: Helvetica; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Long billed corella</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Bellbird"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Bellbird</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Rufus Fantail"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rufus Fantail</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Bellbird"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Bellbird</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Grey butcherbird"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Grey butcherbird</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Bellbird"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Bellbird</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Spotted turtle dove"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Spotted turtle dove</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"lake kawana"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">lake kawana</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Bush stone curlew"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Bush stone curlew</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"UQ"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">UQ</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":3}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"pied stilt"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">pied stilt</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kedron Brook Wetlands"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kedron Brook Wetlands</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":4}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"chestnut teal duck"}" style="border-right-color: transparent; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">chestnut teal duck</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kedron Brook Wetlands"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kedron Brook Wetlands</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":4}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"white bellied sea eagle"}" style="border-right-color: transparent; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">white bellied sea eagle</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kedron Brook Wetlands"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kedron Brook Wetlands</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":4}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"tawny grassbird"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">tawny grassbird</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kedron Brook Wetlands"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kedron Brook Wetlands</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":4}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"great egret"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">great egret</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kedron Brook Wetlands"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kedron Brook Wetlands</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":4}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Some nice birds were seen though. Bird of the week was the Pied Stilt and the Tawny grassbird. </div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-32727889341825039962020-01-15T02:12:00.002-08:002020-01-15T02:14:30.414-08:00Week 1 + 2 of the big year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
The big year has begun</h2>
<br />
This year i have decided to attempt the infamous big year, inspired partly by the awesome Owen Wilson / Jack Black / Steve Martin movie, but mostly as a really good excuse to get out and see some new places. With our push into robotics the amount of field work we get to do has been less than would be ideal, for a biologist like myself whose main training has been out in the field.<br />
But the year started with a bang. With the Help of Taylor Dick (UQ) I managed to see 50 species in the first two weeks.<br />
Week 1 was helped by a trip to Oxley Common. Taylor and I were crook from a flu we had picked up in the cold wasteland that is canada (no offence canadians). I was feeling so weak that i didn't bother bring along the DSLR camera to get any good photos. Could barely carry the bird field guide. BUt lucky we did. The highlights were the red-backed fairy wren, and the superb fairy wren.<br />
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<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; table-layout: fixed; width: 0px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><colgroup><col width="58"></col><col width="211"></col><col width="132"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"number"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">number</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"name"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">name</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"site"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">site</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"week"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">week</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":92}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">92</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"pelican"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">pelican</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Strathpine"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Strathpine</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":323}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">323</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Crested pigeon"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Crested pigeon</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":526}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">526</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Noisy miner"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Noisy miner</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":685}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">685</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Australian Magpie"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Australian Magpie</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":636}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">636</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Willie Wagtail"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Willie Wagtail</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":453}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">453</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Red backed fairy wren"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Red backed fairy wren</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":446}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">446</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Superb fairy wren"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Superb fairy wren</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":564}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">564</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Brown honeyeater"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Brown honeyeater</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":730}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">730</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Red browed finch"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Red browed finch</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":723}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">723</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Double bar finch"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Double bar finch</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":754}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">754</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Common Myna"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Common Myna</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":8}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">8</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Brown Quail"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Brown Quail</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":693}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">693</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Torresian Crow"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Torresian Crow</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":228}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">228</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Masked lapwing"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Masked lapwing</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Oxley Common"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Oxley Common</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Week 2 was much more successful. This time we managed a trip to the Enoggera Dam. I finally took the DSLR out and got some great shots. The bird of the week was the comb creasted jacana! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_n7CMIVhwDxnj9uyrg9zBd2m1vStYwhbQX2UOc2HNwQjWPX2PmckjkCn2nGeiEv4km8W7BUhNV7PttkSI8fbwkbpemKlu28m-XnwVxWQF3k6Y9y53tPhZStNITF_V460UuIZFiYUyvlTf/s1600/DSC_5659.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1600" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_n7CMIVhwDxnj9uyrg9zBd2m1vStYwhbQX2UOc2HNwQjWPX2PmckjkCn2nGeiEv4km8W7BUhNV7PttkSI8fbwkbpemKlu28m-XnwVxWQF3k6Y9y53tPhZStNITF_V460UuIZFiYUyvlTf/s400/DSC_5659.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Comb crested Jacana</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.3333px;">Australasian Grebe</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEPjsL74dYgo-Mwg4apKNC9Hf_bNQxEBW-snhrOs8CSQqEUD4YLdEY7ZimJH7HWDUhqPNSaEYo6Aiu3jC6ohH8TnO_1szlqk51waePGLJTrZUuf9_yl4mImLQj5_SOOR57LrpDuTPVMev_/s1600/DSC_5679.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1288" data-original-width="1600" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEPjsL74dYgo-Mwg4apKNC9Hf_bNQxEBW-snhrOs8CSQqEUD4YLdEY7ZimJH7HWDUhqPNSaEYo6Aiu3jC6ohH8TnO_1szlqk51waePGLJTrZUuf9_yl4mImLQj5_SOOR57LrpDuTPVMev_/s400/DSC_5679.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.3333px;">leaden flycatcher </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphenqu3YUNap2fPxgkdAUoQRdh0gkI7BB5cxPEOyjvWLIcVCtTkVVRchCHjdTpcU4aaijDcVvSmUiD3k3tpVFswEH9O-i1W3Dzq7LVbXM1MXMU7-R8bAaU-r7SKS7k52acJ4NGjRvNe3LLM/s1600/DSC_5715.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphenqu3YUNap2fPxgkdAUoQRdh0gkI7BB5cxPEOyjvWLIcVCtTkVVRchCHjdTpcU4aaijDcVvSmUiD3k3tpVFswEH9O-i1W3Dzq7LVbXM1MXMU7-R8bAaU-r7SKS7k52acJ4NGjRvNe3LLM/s400/DSC_5715.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.3333px;">little shrike-thrush</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.3333px;">grey shrike-thrush</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.3333px;">Fan-tailed Cuckoo</span></div>
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<style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; table-layout: fixed; width: 0px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><colgroup><col width="58"></col><col width="211"></col><col width="132"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":129}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">129</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Australian wood duck"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Australian wood duck</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Landsborough"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Landsborough</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":166}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">166</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Australian white ibis"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Australian white ibis</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Toowong"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Toowong</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":698}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">698</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"welcome swallow"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">welcome swallow</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Landsborough"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Landsborough</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":420}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">420</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"laughing Kookaburra"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">laughing Kookaburra</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Landsborough"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Landsborough</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":522}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">522</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Blue faced honey eater"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Blue faced honey eater</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Beerwah"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Beerwah</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":344}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">344</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"rainbow lorikeet"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">rainbow lorikeet</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"glasshouse mountains"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">glasshouse mountains</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":113}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">113</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Black Swan"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Black Swan</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"lake Kawana"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">lake Kawana</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":154}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">154</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"cattle egret"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">cattle egret</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Sippy Downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Sippy Downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":649}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">649</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"magpie lark"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">magpie lark</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"lake kawana"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">lake kawana</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":153}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">153</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"White faced Heron"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">White faced Heron</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"lake Kawana"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">lake Kawana</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":148}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">148</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"purple swamphen"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">purple swamphen</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sippy downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sippy downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":167}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">167</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"straw necked ibis"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">straw necked ibis</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sippy downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sippy downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":149}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">149</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Eurasian coot"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Eurasian coot</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sippy downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sippy downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":147}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">147</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"dusky moorhen"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">dusky moorhen</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sippy downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sippy downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":156}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">156</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"little egret"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">little egret</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sippy downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sippy downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":341}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">341</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sulphur crested cockatoo"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sulphur crested cockatoo</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sippy downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sippy downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":120}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">120</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"pacific black duck"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">pacific black duck</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sippy downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sippy downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":312}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">312</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"rock dove"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">rock dove</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"lake Kawana"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">lake Kawana</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":720}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">720</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"house sparrow"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">house sparrow</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"lake Kawana"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">lake Kawana</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":106}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">106</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"little pied cormorant"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">little pied cormorant</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"sippy downs"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">sippy downs</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":111}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">111</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Australasian Grebe (728)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Australasian Grebe (728)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":638}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">638</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"leaden flycatcher (674)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">leaden flycatcher (674)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":620}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">620</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"little shrike-thrush (715)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">little shrike-thrush (715)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":108}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">108</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"little black Cormorant (738)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">little black Cormorant (738)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":103}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">103</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Darter (739)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Darter (739)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":623}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">623</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"grey shrike-thrush (754)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">grey shrike-thrush (754)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":674}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">674</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"varied triller (758)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">varied triller (758)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":128}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">128</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"hard head (white eyed duck) (691)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">hard head (white eyed duck) (691)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":645}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">645</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Spectacled monarch (756)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Spectacled monarch (756)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":222}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">222</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Comb creseted Jacana (659)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Comb creseted Jacana (659)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":605}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">605</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Eastern yellow robin (760)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Eastern yellow robin (760)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":386}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">386</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fan-tailed Cuckoo (767)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Fan-tailed Cuckoo (767)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":529}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">529</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Lewin's honeyeater (782)"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Lewin's honeyeater (782)</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":586}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">586</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Eastern whip bird"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Eastern whip bird</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":157}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">157</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Intermediate egret"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Intermediate egret</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":6}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">6</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Brush turkey "}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Brush turkey </td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"enogerra reservoir"}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">enogerra reservoir</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2}" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-44825867563119893152020-01-05T16:55:00.000-08:002020-01-05T16:55:56.305-08:002020 is going to be awesome! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
Well 2020 is finally here. My plan for this year is to start posting more. Looks like i haven't posted much for the last two year. Not for lack of will, but rather a complete lack of time. However this year i am going to assign a higher priority to posting more, it it becomes more of a habit.<br />
<br />
2019 was a great year. The Clemente biorobotics and biomechanics lab exploded in size and we saw lots of new members joining. We moved into a new room, and now have an extensive system of rapid prototying, laser cutting and more.<br />
<br />
We have pushed into the field of machine learning, both in our work on animal movement using accelerometers but also into machine vision markerless motion capture, mostly thanks to the hard work of Jojo Schultz. We only got out five papers, i hope we can do better this year.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxgP6Q8u_JDymwTxC6LAL-bevdDVl-P_aeoLLqTTaaKTOo78tnJRjs8nz1NiMEvd2RZAKmWCrvAoTlfWq57nQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<br />
Brunton, E.A., Clemente, C.J. and Burnett, S.E., 2019. Not all urban landscapes are the same: interactions between urban land use and stress in a large herbivorous mammal. Ecological Applications.<br />
<br />
Gaschk, J.L., Frère, C.H. and Clemente, C.J., 2019. Quantifying koala locomotion strategies: implications for the evolution of arborealism in marsupials. Journal of Experimental Biology, 222(24).<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Littleford-Colquhoun, B.L., <b>Clemente, C.J.,</b>
Thompson, G., Cristescu, R.H., Peterson, N., Strickland, K., Stuart-Fox, D. and
Frere, C.H., 2019. How sexual and natural selection shape sexual size
dimorphism: evidence from multiple evolutionary scales. <i>Functional Ecology</i>,
In press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Clemente, C.J.</b>, Dick, T.J., Wheatley, R.,
*Gaschk, J., Nasir, A.F.A.A., Cameron, S.F. and Wilson, R.S., 2019. Moving in
complex environments: a biomechanical analysis of locomotion on inclined and
narrow substrates. <i>Journal of Experimental Biology</i>, pp.jeb-189654.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Campbell, K., Martyr, D., Risdianto, D. and <b>Clemente,
C.J.</b>, 2019. Two species, one snare: Analysing snare usage and the impacts
of tiger poaching on a non-target species, the Malayan tapir. <i>Biological
Conservation</i>, 231, pp.161-166. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-25004284204712402122017-08-21T17:54:00.001-07:002017-08-21T17:54:37.262-07:00Jumping insects - Honours project<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have recently published some work on insect jumping <a href="http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/14/130/20170022">here</a><br />
<br />
But what i really wanted to look at was the association between either insect jumping speed / acceleration with limb length.<br />
<br />
But also insect jumping ability with adhesive pads, as i suspect that long legs in insects are less for allowing them to jump faster, but rather for allowing them to jump from smooth surfaces without slipping. Although, they do look hilarious when they slip.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-qCJy_vmQdf3d_nvamD7ooQPBaCm2sFATyVGz0c5ctSJNsVHdmV6Qf8szP8K6ZLN4LM902ZTMvN9tOQOQHhTP2IniLhDGwot828a6Zzk0oAkvp7Kw0QoLgKipXb95u7uO2GF2XpKWZV_j/s1600/BgDnvQ.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-qCJy_vmQdf3d_nvamD7ooQPBaCm2sFATyVGz0c5ctSJNsVHdmV6Qf8szP8K6ZLN4LM902ZTMvN9tOQOQHhTP2IniLhDGwot828a6Zzk0oAkvp7Kw0QoLgKipXb95u7uO2GF2XpKWZV_j/s320/BgDnvQ.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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I want to do this by comparing take off velocity and acceleration in a whole pile of crickets that we find around campus.<br />
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-61458135549362669052017-08-21T17:36:00.002-07:002017-08-21T17:37:27.131-07:00insect clinging - honours project<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6FG_TQVp7ofsAgPWEAMSbteQRzpmKqBJzPAx46_J2M3fxk7XDxmue7XN2fKUVRNMLBLju49oFKp1yYtYixxGZxpcfhR7EKFovSm09y0aCX0elmE0ZzyzBjzqMjZyehqyGZi6hJ13g57J/s1600/20150121_231442.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6FG_TQVp7ofsAgPWEAMSbteQRzpmKqBJzPAx46_J2M3fxk7XDxmue7XN2fKUVRNMLBLju49oFKp1yYtYixxGZxpcfhR7EKFovSm09y0aCX0elmE0ZzyzBjzqMjZyehqyGZi6hJ13g57J/s320/20150121_231442.jpg" width="180" /></a><br />
Insects are very good at clinging to surfaces using their claws.<br />
<br />
However, this might start becoming a problem as they get bigger. That's because to stick to things with claws they need very fine, sharp claws. But we know from our scaling lectures that as things get bigger the diameter of things is also expected to increase. So how do they do it? Does claw morphology change with size, or do larger bugs simply stick less well?<br />
<br />
To answer this we will need a combination of SEM images of insect claws, and some performance estimates of insect sticking ability, probably using something like an insect centrifuge. <br />
<br />
We currently have a whole stack of rhino beetle grubs which would be great for this project, and are due to hatch out this summer.<br />
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Keen to try your luck at making one? Blue print below ;)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWX7hlfhaGayCbhU8kTwXhQ5CsHPJKP9J_Na1eg9lwmQxze_azHs28kOupjSiTVOQAd08WPpiccMnrY98q7PqnTUnylOPRhhiuohVS67ZQjwvRbBBVYCNjMoyFqYE0pyquBX9g8ntIbCu/s1600/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1051" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWX7hlfhaGayCbhU8kTwXhQ5CsHPJKP9J_Na1eg9lwmQxze_azHs28kOupjSiTVOQAd08WPpiccMnrY98q7PqnTUnylOPRhhiuohVS67ZQjwvRbBBVYCNjMoyFqYE0pyquBX9g8ntIbCu/s320/Picture1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-13690896335025597212017-08-21T17:17:00.000-07:002017-08-21T17:17:00.128-07:00Are water dragons really water dragons? - Honours project<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
I have been wondering about this for some time. Often i will come across water dragons in places where there is no water (e.g. Alexander headland) and other times i come across a nice body of water, but never see any water dragons. (think about all the small lakes on campus).<br />
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I want to use GIS style mapping in R or other wise to overlay the distribution of water dragons with surface features. The comparison i want to make, is a water dragons preferring habitats on the edge of water bodies, or are water dragons just preferring areas of a steep slope (which just happen to be associated with water bodies, or both?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijaRpVN5YvNHxzHokaS3fB4V1mufMQGen-y-150iRRdAqiw4hgF8fZeCydJA_EB6fsycR214HEoYOzBRQA-sB8JdkcpGnIlpVrkkTibzM0X1nwjJzdXp6tlJOT1zCOBx5Rd20D8qDM1dfE/s1600/10576992_10152700002596639_4165544964188629332_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="960" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijaRpVN5YvNHxzHokaS3fB4V1mufMQGen-y-150iRRdAqiw4hgF8fZeCydJA_EB6fsycR214HEoYOzBRQA-sB8JdkcpGnIlpVrkkTibzM0X1nwjJzdXp6tlJOT1zCOBx5Rd20D8qDM1dfE/s400/10576992_10152700002596639_4165544964188629332_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-81619242074545060612017-08-21T14:49:00.002-07:002017-08-21T17:48:16.433-07:00Lizard hurdles - Honours project<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So i have been working on lizards running on two or four legs for some time now, Check this out.<br />
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I think it tends to be related to the ability of lizards to raise their body centre of mass to get over obstacles. Are bipedal lizards better able to do this? I have collected a stack of data on this, but it needs to be analysed, and maybe to collect more data where parts are missing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYZU5Q0t0S5OuMPf5OS8SF4295Hl6A1zBeNFuBaJBkhUVqaTV5gDc0TbrOqveAIQ1YTtZygz_TCC12cqKDvwopmfJPV6EilczGPkOSEnN3nOIeeUcd2OWV1Fm6vA3QK9bwDHMErD7wT79/s1600/Cscut5_run44_60mm.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="214" data-original-width="384" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYZU5Q0t0S5OuMPf5OS8SF4295Hl6A1zBeNFuBaJBkhUVqaTV5gDc0TbrOqveAIQ1YTtZygz_TCC12cqKDvwopmfJPV6EilczGPkOSEnN3nOIeeUcd2OWV1Fm6vA3QK9bwDHMErD7wT79/s320/Cscut5_run44_60mm.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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The eventual goal is to combine this with data from robots running on two and four legs over obstacles. These robots are currently being constructed by the engineering honours students here at USC.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX5iK4TuE0ZbtX21-x9SnmASKkae-WWQpw-5yTj3xGoGxVYlZdPFC76eWD0aJ_M9XvwOslJZotCLZsFzXy6HFhxxsrgYSI6-ntG4vf3ZQutjjA3XaVMDT5BCB7h5wI6t55CQ7q_45vNmGo/s1600/robot_run8_52mm_b.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="512" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX5iK4TuE0ZbtX21-x9SnmASKkae-WWQpw-5yTj3xGoGxVYlZdPFC76eWD0aJ_M9XvwOslJZotCLZsFzXy6HFhxxsrgYSI6-ntG4vf3ZQutjjA3XaVMDT5BCB7h5wI6t55CQ7q_45vNmGo/s320/robot_run8_52mm_b.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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So get on board if lizards are your thing.</div>
christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-52634887354891741092017-08-21T14:39:00.001-07:002017-08-21T14:39:08.558-07:00Cat biomechanics - honours project<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Cats are really good at jumping, and maneuvering mid air. Just check out these videos i captured of my house cat<br />
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What i am interested in is how does rotation along the spine in mid-air work? How long does it take, and how might this be affected by body size.<br />
Lots of 3D biomechanics questions here. This will also fit into a much larger project we are planning on house cat movement using accelerometers. Anyway, have some more cat videos<br />
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nice! </div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-82810563164106260452017-08-19T23:39:00.001-07:002017-08-21T14:32:28.828-07:00Jumping sea slaters - honours project<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was walking along the rocks of the spit in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast a few weeks (maybe months?) ago, and i saw these little critters sitting just above the water line, jumping from rock to rock. I returned a few days later with a bucket and a net, and set about the task of trying to catch a few of them, so i could bring them back to the lab to understand how they jump.<br />
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You see the thing is that most Slaters will have ten or more legs, so the thought occurred to me that it must be super hard to co-ordinate all ten legs at once to power the jump. I had just published a paper on jumping froghoppers and leaf hoppers in the <a href="http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/14/130/20170022">Royal society interface</a> and they used only their back two legs.<br />
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After what i would describe as a disproportionally long period of time i did succeed in catching a few and brought them back to my lab to film them on the fastec camera. I got a few jumps at 250 fps, and it looks like only the back two pairs of legs are involved with the jump<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi78T-5F-BuDEi6DifjWzcfbXvLrZB3-83N73mKohBGRUpYb4htc7azsXPs_4m6AZgwEsiMSJ82bB2IV3s4ER74hQPmQLes5U9jk2wV8tadvCRDVGEMQwNtGYdXY9o8qYFFVzwrqi07X1w4/s1600/hGCyMpc.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="1024" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi78T-5F-BuDEi6DifjWzcfbXvLrZB3-83N73mKohBGRUpYb4htc7azsXPs_4m6AZgwEsiMSJ82bB2IV3s4ER74hQPmQLes5U9jk2wV8tadvCRDVGEMQwNtGYdXY9o8qYFFVzwrqi07X1w4/s320/hGCyMpc.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Though notice, the front of the body is also catapulted up to help propel body, so lots more to be answered.</div>
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How good it is at targeting and landing the jumps? </div>
Can it control distance, if so how?<br />
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Do the legs contribute more than the body to the jump? </div>
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Be fun to figure it out. </div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-42963572181971055502017-08-19T23:15:00.002-07:002017-08-19T23:15:54.151-07:00Jumping without slipping<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz2YVr_GFQk57INsA8b-hgFAZPwlG0E9sTU1UOdVpoIXi5XmsgAgRyaBXNv3_0S4Pzoej_Bb40Pgnxgzp0n0qffwQl3gBZCxQ7alCYpkE_ROeXy1ikVAfAqKtWzEqCxX-VrQQgyL41-g3p/s1600/18342764_10155273510826639_3878081668281374472_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="771" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz2YVr_GFQk57INsA8b-hgFAZPwlG0E9sTU1UOdVpoIXi5XmsgAgRyaBXNv3_0S4Pzoej_Bb40Pgnxgzp0n0qffwQl3gBZCxQ7alCYpkE_ROeXy1ikVAfAqKtWzEqCxX-VrQQgyL41-g3p/s320/18342764_10155273510826639_3878081668281374472_n.jpg" width="257" /></a>The image here is of a leafhopper. These leafhopper and their close relatives the froghoppers are capable of amazing jumping feats.<br />
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Philaenus frog-hoppers have relatively short hind legs (66% of the body length), are able to accelerate in less than 1 ms to take-off velocities of up to 4.7 m s−1, when jumping from high-density foam. In comparison, Aphrodes leafhoppers (pictured here) have longer hind legs (84% of the body length), take longer (4.4 ms) to accelerate and achieve take-off velocities of up to 2.9 m s−1 on high-density foam.<br />
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On a rough substrate such as foam, spines or claws on the hind legs may be able to grip, but they may not be able to engage with smooth surfaces, like glass.<br />
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This is because insects also cannot rely on classic friction alone,<br />
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Their take-off angle α = tan−1(Fnormal/Fshear) = tan−1(1/μ) is limited by the friction coefficient μ (Amontons' law of friction: Fshear = μ Fnormal, where Fshear is the force parallel to the surface and Fnormal the load normal to the surface). Friction coefficients μ for rigid, dry surfaces are typically less than 1. Assuming μ = 0.35 (like we measured for beetle claws on glass), insects could only jump upward with steep take-off angles α > 70°. To jump forward, insects require significantly higher friction coefficients (μ). So how do they do it?<br />
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We tested this idea and it turn out, some insects can, but some can't. Watch this video of the shorter legged froghoppers, with their higher acceleration trying to jump from glass.<br />
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That froghopper is getting nowhere quick. Its legs slip and cause it to spin, forward uncontrollable (and hilariously) at a high angle predicted by our model.<br />
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But froghoppers can jump from glass. And they do so using these soft adhesive pads, which were different to those seen in other insects we looked at. Furthermore, when we tried to test the pads to see how much friction they can create (see our method below), the forces were too low to account for their take off velocity and angle.<br />
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This was puzzling since we really couldn't explain the final jump velocity, and the forces the leafhoppers were producing on glass were too low to produce the observed take-off velocity. </div>
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One day i was sitting in the lab explaining the problem to my then supervisor Walter Federle in his lab, in the old Cavendish laboratories at Cambridge, and he asked me to show his how the experiment ran. We went through a few trials, and we were both perplex as to where the forces were coming from, was there something wrong with our system? When testing the force, we like to move the glass plate to a new spot each time so we don't get a build up of adhesive fluid, which lowers adhesion (a whole different study!) - so i manually changed some settings to move it to a clean sections. </div>
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Yet I must have changed the wrong setting since the plate moved much faster than i anticipated. Normally we used quite slow speeds, cause the whole setup, including our poor tethered insects, is quite fragile, and the robotic arm could easily crush it all (as work with the occasional undergrad student has taught me). But this time sometime peculiar happened. The force we got back we much high, much much higher. We performed some quick back of the envelope calculations (though should now be called on the paper towel calculations - since nobody has envelopes lying around anymore) - and they were high enough to explain the jumps we had seen before. </div>
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More over the contact area of these weird pads went from looking like this during a slide.</div>
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To this</div>
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So we had solved our problem, and in doing so discovered that these new pads were actually velocity dependent. In other words the amount of friction produced increases with the speed at which they are sliding across the surface.<br />
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Very important if you want to avoid slipping while jumping from smooth surfaces. </div>
christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-16063958747906909482017-08-19T22:20:00.002-07:002017-08-19T22:21:11.754-07:00Dinosaur biomechanics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFNxm4cIDJ4c5jPBHIobDhDDPz6_Px8cGbp7FXBAFyxY9YL0uJy1I6xvAApX7TEKSs7n_SygqqjoNVcA8E6RdHC1leeAzjonMG4pecZEi54U6sQaX8J69Y8xmCSrsLZSu0eAHhbIp-FAMI/s1600/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1429" data-original-width="979" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFNxm4cIDJ4c5jPBHIobDhDDPz6_Px8cGbp7FXBAFyxY9YL0uJy1I6xvAApX7TEKSs7n_SygqqjoNVcA8E6RdHC1leeAzjonMG4pecZEi54U6sQaX8J69Y8xmCSrsLZSu0eAHhbIp-FAMI/s320/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png" style="cursor: move;" width="219" /></a>Thought I would post a couple of link to some videos of quails running which were part of our study into the way theropod dinosaurs may have moved.<br />
Links to the study is <a href="http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/14/132/20170276">here </a><br />
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We compared measurements of step width against the speed of the animal, measured directly for the modern species, or by using stride length as a proxy for the extinct theropods.<br />
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In all three groups, step width decreased with increasing speed. In other words, as the animal moved faster, the left and right feet were placed closer towards the body midline, and at the fastest speeds of locomotion, the feet could even cross over the midline.<br />
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So this told us that the extinct theropods that made the footprints were at least following the same general principle seen in modern bipeds.<br />
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Interestingly, however, the way in which step width decreased with increasing speed was different between the three groups.<br />
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This pattern of similarity and contrast suggests that the extinct theropods were moving more like modern birds than humans.<br />
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Furthermore, a gradual or continuous change with speed has been previously observed for many other measurements of locomotion in birds, such as stride length and step frequency.<br />
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Birds therefore have what is called a “continuous locomotor repertoire” – that is, walking and running are not distinct gaits (as they are in humans), but instead they transition seamlessly from one to the other.<br />
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The extinct theropods that made the footprints were probably also using a similarly continuous locomotor behaviour.<br />
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-88645254280980125072016-03-17T21:30:00.005-07:002016-03-18T03:34:32.034-07:00Why biology is so hard! The 'peculiarly difficult position' of the Biologist: an analysis of Zinssers' view of the sciences.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This essay was s<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">ubmitted
in partial fulfillment of my degree of Bachelor of Science </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">(Honours), Department of Zoology, The </span><st1:place style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Western </st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Australia (June 2001). I recently was talking about this with a colleague and I thought I would share it. It's a long, but hopefully interesting read about why being a biologist can be more difficult than a chemist or a physicist. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6nKJXA3q4k-h8EeiAnfkTx6bPxOWzQWuLra4t4pauxhFSbiBzlSS4UwYoTatmUTBs3LPhDHEDfGdDS_MR72nb8J1vFw-ZVn_qmitcEDAeskJDR5nxVfxxvTVFHuOwlzz7PeP9dpwlWVOI/s1600/220px-Hans_Zinsser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Hans Zinsser" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6nKJXA3q4k-h8EeiAnfkTx6bPxOWzQWuLra4t4pauxhFSbiBzlSS4UwYoTatmUTBs3LPhDHEDfGdDS_MR72nb8J1vFw-ZVn_qmitcEDAeskJDR5nxVfxxvTVFHuOwlzz7PeP9dpwlWVOI/s200/220px-Hans_Zinsser.jpg" title="Hans Zinsser" width="167" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Zinsser">Hans Zinsser</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Hans Zinsser (1947) presents in his book; Rats, Lice and
History, a bibliography on the virus causing typhus fever. The first three
chapters, however, present more of a protest against the "American
attitude" wherein the author insists that a specialist should have no
interests beyond his chosen field. In presenting this view Zinsser compares
biologists to chemists or physicists and makes an interesting quote (Zinsser
1947, p. 13) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">"The
biologist is in a peculiarly difficult position. He cannot isolate individual
reactions and study them one by one, as a chemist can. He is deprived of the
mathematical forecasts by which the physicist can so frequently guide his
experimental efforts. Nature sets the conditions under which the biologist
works, and he must accept her terms or give up the task altogether".</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The
‘difficult position’ to which Zinsser (1947), and also the subject of this
essay, was that of accounting for the
complexity in, and the inherent difficulty of studying biology when compared to
the other sciences such as chemistry or physics. This is not to say that the
fields of chemistry or physics are simple, as these fields are anything but.
However Zinsser (1947) suggests certain problems exist when studying biology
compared to the other sciences in the above quote, and are the focus of this
essay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The first
problem identified by Zinsser (1947) is that a biologist cannot isolate
individual reactions. Chemistry involves processes whereby species react to
form products, and these can be easily explained by individual reactions or, in
more complicated chemical systems, by a series of reactions. Biological
systems, such as an animal, may display two major problems when trying to
isolate chemical reactions as a chemist does, although it is not clear to which
one Zinsser (1947) referred within the quote. The first is the inherent
difficulty in isolating specific reactions. Each animal is a complex system of
inter-relating macromolecular structures, substrates and enzymes; isolating a
single reaction within this system is not easy. However it is not impossible
and some biologists, for example Krebs, have formulated complex detailed
chemical reactions to explain biological processes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This
process can be related to the second problem in isolating chemical reactions
within animals. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnNbQDmxxfTX03vEbHuJ1Vb3dIh0nUASu3j53n2wmol625qh7b02yqv6p9qfox9JI1gSwSQbZoFIDYPcuqf6YByO17iHQ9-i4q1bBz7oocLJ9kWqoA5tJT95OcUlNhp1acMs9DtHoYp5AM/s1600/Duck_of_Vaucanson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnNbQDmxxfTX03vEbHuJ1Vb3dIh0nUASu3j53n2wmol625qh7b02yqv6p9qfox9JI1gSwSQbZoFIDYPcuqf6YByO17iHQ9-i4q1bBz7oocLJ9kWqoA5tJT95OcUlNhp1acMs9DtHoYp5AM/s200/Duck_of_Vaucanson.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductionism">Duck of Vaucanson</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This is the idea of reductionism versus holism and whether it
is possible to reduce </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">a complex
organism down to chemical or even physical explanations. Although there are
still reductionary biologists there is much debate about whether the results
obtained by such a study can ever really describe a complex biological system.
Reductionism is the practice of explaining the properties of whole organisms
entirely by the properties of the parts that compose them (Mohr 1989). This
usually involves two steps 'analysis' –the breaking down of complex systems
into manageable components, and 'synthesis' –the relation of the parts, such as
their spatial and temporal ordering and the way that they interact. For example
a society or community of animals (such as ants) can be broken down into single
organisms (such as a worker ant). The organism can then be further broken down
into organs or appendages (eyes, brains, gut, reproductive system, Malphigian
tubules etc) which are further broken down into cells, the cells into cell
organelles, cell organelles into macromolecules, macromolecules into molecules,
molecules into atoms, atoms into subatomic particles.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The
reductionist approach implies that all complex systems consist of smaller and
simpler parts. Moreover, it is assumed that complex systems originated from
simpler systems in the course of universal evolution. Where evolution is
considered a deterministic process, governed by causal laws (Mohr 1989). It emphasizes
whether and to what extent a proposition, a theory , or a whole branch of
science can be reduced to another proposition, theory, or branch of science.
Reduction is tempting since it satisfies one of the great desires of the
scientist -to have unifying theories with a wide scope. However there are
problems associated with reducing these complex systems, and dividing them up
into simpler ones. The concept of 'emergences' arises since the sum of the
parts is not always equal to the sum of the whole. In fact, very few systems
can be thought of, or represented as additive functions of the properties of
it's constituent parts, it is the functional relationship between these parts
that matters (Medwar and Medwar 1983). 'Complexity' in biology is due to the particular
interactions of the parts (such as the molecules inside the cell, or the cells
within the organs etc). At higher levels of complexity there are properties
that cannot be described, or predicted in the lower levels. For example, at
present analysing the organs of an ant could in no way predict the complex
social system the ants portray, similarly doing so (analysing organs) in humans
could not predict the possession of a conscious mind. These are called
'emergent' properties, and may well be considered a necessary property to the
natural system in which it develops. However, for the biologist 'emergent
properties' means limits to reductionism. To ignore emergent properties at the
different levels of complexity to maintain maximum reducibility would mean to
ignore the richness of the animal world. Thus a living cell cannot be explained
in terms of its parts but only in terms of the organisation of those parts.
Although the whole is nothing but the parts put together, it is the 'putting
together' that makes the cell and this cannot be accounted for by the parts
themselves (Mohr 1989). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-6RtDyZvLae8L43Zi-v-8jHu1IscksdjVPKkDyEqq14yXhdC7gzowqsmAXpjTxpp55dyzMiVrvS7LDWMUVSvvAOoXnXrjWlN9OEg29eCWhK3__YiB-gsxd6u-zP_KSuk752-ZfNOkyPc/s1600/1280px-Termite_Cathedral_DSC03570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-6RtDyZvLae8L43Zi-v-8jHu1IscksdjVPKkDyEqq14yXhdC7gzowqsmAXpjTxpp55dyzMiVrvS7LDWMUVSvvAOoXnXrjWlN9OEg29eCWhK3__YiB-gsxd6u-zP_KSuk752-ZfNOkyPc/s200/1280px-Termite_Cathedral_DSC03570.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence">Emergent properties of termites</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">For
chemical and physical systems reductionism is also an important part of
research. A typical example is the creation of theories of great generality
such as quantum mechanics or the theory of relativity. Most (but not all) atoms
seem to be ruled by known principles or equations such as Maxwell's equation or
the Schrödinger equation. Equally large chemical complexes can be reduced down
to smaller complexes, smaller complexes to atoms. Whether emergence exists in
chemistry is not clear, if one was to consider a large molecule, could it's
properties be predicted by studying the individual atoms? Take for example a
typical hydrocarbon, consisting of carbon and hydrogen molecules. Adding a
carboxyl group (by attaching an =OH molecule to the carbon) will almost always
make the molecule behave like an acid (except in large hydrocarbons where it's
properties will be governed by Van Der Wels forces). There are whole fields of
chemical engineering that are based on the fact that the actions of molecules
are the sum of its parts. But there are still examples that are much too
complicated for computations from principles. Physics can still not explain the
behaviour of uranium or even oxygen. Is this an example of emergence within
chemistry? It is not known whether this is an example of emergence, or an
example of our lack of understanding of the atoms. For example, if more was
known about the movement of electrons around the atom and the interaction they
have with other atoms within the complex, then one may be able to predict the
properties of the complex more precisely (although a similar argument could be
used in biology).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">However, a
major difference between the sciences is the degree to which a system is
reduced (ie from the highest (most complex) level to the lowest. (least
complex) level). Biological systems can be reduced many more times than can a
chemical or a physical system. The difference in the amount each system is
reduced for analysis may influence the number and effect of emergences. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The number
and the extent of the examples in biology of emergence coupled with the
multitude of levels throughout which the complexity of biology is reduced when
compared to the other sciences may suggest that emergence will have a greater
effect in biological systems. This may lead to doubt, and a decrease in the
predicability in biological systems.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Hence many
philosophers of biology e.g. Wuketits (1989) have concluded that biology
requires an 'organism-centred' view of life. Thus, unlike chemical or physical systems,
to examine biological systems a 'holistic' approach must be taken by
biologists. As the zoologist Ritter quotes "the organism in its totality
is as essential to an explanation of its elements as its elements are to an
explanation of the organism" {Beckner 1967). Holism was greatly developed
by Bertalanffy in his General Systems Theory (Bertalanffy 1968). Holism
suggests that neither whole determines the parts nor the parts determine the
whole but that a complex interaction between the parts and the whole is to be
supposed. Bertalanffy's theory has influenced biology as well as other
sciences, and it shows some of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">the
differences between the sciences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It can be
summarized as follows;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(1)
The whole (of an organism) is more than the sum of its parts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(2)
Living beings are open systems, ie non-equilibrium systems. Physics
traditionally<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">deals
with closed systems, ie equilibrium systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(3)
Living systems are not static systems; they are regarded as continuous
processes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(4)
Organisms are homeostatic systems; any living system represents a dynamic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">interplay
at all levels of its organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(5)
Organisms are hierarchically organized systems. Any organism is structured in a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">way
so that its individual members (organs, cells) are 'super-systems' of other<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">elements
or levels of organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">So the
biologist is in a difficult position where he must consider all level of
complexity of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">an
organism. To study biology successfully he must examine the parts of an
organism, the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">whole of
the organism and the interaction of these two, to completely understand any
biological system. This task is not easy and carries with it other difficulties
such as methodology and whether this is actually possible in some species. One
tends to agree if one imagines a huge complex network, we can understand that
isolating a pattern in this complex network by drawing a boundary around it and
calling it an object will be somewhat arbitrary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">A second
problem broached by Zinsser (1947 p. 13) is that "Nature sets the
conditions under which the biologist works". This is similar to the above
problem of reductionism, that each organism is a complex interaction of the
whole and the parts of an organism, and whether an organism can be studied
outside this network. Traditionally biology was more evidence based where
observations were made in the field and inferences were made from these
observations. However an aspect which renders biologists different from
chemists or physicists is that we ask the question "what for"?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"What
for" is not asked by chemists or physicists because there is no answer
that makes sense, an electron spins around a ball of protons and neutrons, what
for? But asking that question in biology is not so irrelevant. This question,
however, inevitably leads to intervention in biological systems to answer it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Intervention
by biologists is typically performed in two scenarios: in the field and in the
laboratory. Both carry their advantages, but unfortunately both also carry
disadvantages. For the Chemist or the Physicist the decision is easy, the
laboratory provides the adequate arena for scientific discovery. The lab
provides an environment where physical conditions such as temperature and
pressure can be controlled; and thus for the chemist experimentation couldn't
be easier (although having had experience as a chemist this is somewhat of an
understatement). The biologist faces other considerations, in that some
laboratory experiments may produce results not representative of the organism
in its natural environment. For example, when testing physiological
performances of lizards sprint speeds and endurance are usually tested in the
laboratory. Lizards are run along a motorised treadmill till exhaustion to
measure endurance or along a race track, to measure maximal running speed.
These data then used to compare lizards and the differences attributed to
Darwinian selection on the animal, assuming that the animal runs that fast or
can run for so long because it has been selected to. However, selection acts
most directly on what an animal does in nature, its behaviour. Performance, on
the other hand, as defined by laboratory measurements, generally exhibits an
animals ability to do something when pushed to its morphological, physiological
or biochemical limits. Whether animals routinely behave at or near
physiological limits under natural conditions is an important empirical issue.
Some data (see Garland and Losos (1994 p. 24) for a comprehensive list)
suggests that animals do not behave at their limits in nature, and "close
encounters of the worst kind" between predators and prey where an animal
may be forced to behave at or near its physiological limits are few and far
between (Christian and Tracey 1981, Jayne and Bennett, 1990). This reflects the
reductionism problem, where an animal is reduced from its social and
environmental surroundings and thus some aspects of its behaviour cannot be
predicted accurately. Hence the need for a holistic view on the organism which
can be best achieved by performing experiments in the natural environment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ZNbylHGRSQBddEctiK0ttZ2YfaiVAt10VKAmkme5waKQ87uPE0sHetJsXg7tZxRNk62GBjwNqY-iJZ3GizQYJBayVOuoXlb1B0xtG_mDwjlq-jLZj8zfvwdlr3wLvco203dT9tXkYmX-/s1600/RedNeckedPademelon-front-800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ZNbylHGRSQBddEctiK0ttZ2YfaiVAt10VKAmkme5waKQ87uPE0sHetJsXg7tZxRNk62GBjwNqY-iJZ3GizQYJBayVOuoXlb1B0xtG_mDwjlq-jLZj8zfvwdlr3wLvco203dT9tXkYmX-/s320/RedNeckedPademelon-front-800.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-necked_pademelon">Red necked Pademelon</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Environmental
experiments are all but unknown to physicist and to a lesser degree to
chemists. These are usually performed by intervening with animals in the
natural environment, however the problem that this creates is the lack of
controls. For example consider the hypothetical example of the red-necked
pademelon (Thylogale thetis). Wahungu <i>et
al</i>. (1999) examined the effects of browsing by the pademelons on shoots of
rainforest plants. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">They tested
this idea by planting four shoots from each of nine local rainforest plant
species and four clover seedlings, in twelve quadrats along two transects. All
the shoots in one of the transects were excluded from pademelon browsing by
erecting 1.0 x 1.0 x 0.5m high cages of 20mm mesh over each of the quadrats in
that transect. Shoots from the other quadrat were left exposed. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Will this
experiment test pademelon browsing? This method does not account for other
species that may feed upon the shoots, within the open transect –but like the
pademelon are also excluded from the caged quadrats. The feeding behaviour of
the pademelons may also be altered by the presence of multiple shoots within a
small area, the pademelon may feed on many more different species of shoots
then it would normally since they are now closely available in larger
quantities than may normally be available in nature.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Similarly
we may have approached this problem in many other ways. We might begin by
looking at the plants that this pademelon primarily eat. But this may not
account for indirect effects, ie the pademelon eats plant A, however plant B is
aided/disadvantaged by the absence of plant A (Plant A may compete with plant B
for sunlight and the absence of plant A increases the abundance of plant B or
it may be symbiotic with it were the presence of plant A aids the growth of
plant B conversely a reduction in the abundance of plant A may cause a similar
reduction in the abundance of plant B) and thus the while observations may
suggest the pademelon affects only plant A the full effect is not known.
Another method might be to look at vegetation in areas inhabited by the
pademelon and compare these to areas not inhabited by the pademelon, examining
the differences. The problem this causes is that it does not account for
changes for differences in climate or other species at the different locations
- even if these are known they could not be controlled for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">The third problem addressed by Zinsser (1947 :p. 13) is presented by the quote "He is deprived of the mathematical forecasts by which the physicist can so frequently guide his experimental efforts". Newton showed that mathematical descriptions give us insight into the nature of things. However, our mathematics has been mostly limited to simple systems with linear interactions. This corresponds to systems with few pieces that do not interact strongly with each other. But the biological world as we have seen above consists of anything but, it is filled with systems that have many pieces that strongly interact with each other. These systems are usually described as fractals or chaotic systems. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">Fractals are usually defined as objects or processes whose small pieces resemble the whole, while chaotic systems are those with output so complex it mimics random behaviour (Liebovitch,1998). Fractals have several properties that distinguish them; self-similarity, scaling, and certain statistical properties. Self -similarity (or more accurately statistical self -similarity) can occur in biological systems where little pieces of an object are similar to larger pieces. Many of these show self-similarity within space. For example, there are self-similar patterns in the branching of the arms (dendrites) of nerve cells. Larger arms break up to from smaller arms, which break up to form smaller arms and so on. At each stage the pattern resembles the one before it. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">Other examples of self -similar patterns in space include the arteries and the veins of the retina, the tubes that bring air into the lungs, and the tubes (ducts) in the liver that bring bile to the gall bladder. Many body surfaces in the body have self-similar undulations with ever finer pockets or fingers. These ever finer structures increase the area available for the exchange of nutrients, gasses, and ions. These surfaces include the lining of the intestine, the boundary of the placenta and the membranes of cells: (Liebovitch 1998). Some biological systems can also be self-similar in time. Ion channels, are proteins in the cell membrane with a central hole that allows ions passage in or out of the cells. These proteins can change in structure, closing the hole and blocking the flow of ions. The small electrical current due to these ions can be measured in an individual ions channel molecule, and is high when open and low when closed. When a recording of current is played back at low time resolution, the times during which the channel was open and closed can be seen (see Figure 1). When one of these open or closed times is played back at higher time resolution, it can be seen to consist of many briefer open and closing times. The current through the channel is self -similar because the pattern of open and closed times found at low time resolution is repeated in the open and closed times found at higher time resolution (Liebovitch, 1998). Other examples of temporal fractals may include the electrical signal generated by the contraction of the heart or even a cell multiplying over time. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZfpaC7MzfixcG__d39RxZG4LnHv6afNNyD_APBmYolG9ipMwU1vlCTiCD63R1UFhhyphenhypheniyFjUvhXCM6rIj9huI3jm6H23rjAgW3ag1-pWcduTfwSg9Drlh8HkY_nhesNpblZDp-jxO6Sa6v/s1600/zinsser_fig.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZfpaC7MzfixcG__d39RxZG4LnHv6afNNyD_APBmYolG9ipMwU1vlCTiCD63R1UFhhyphenhypheniyFjUvhXCM6rIj9huI3jm6H23rjAgW3ag1-pWcduTfwSg9Drlh8HkY_nhesNpblZDp-jxO6Sa6v/s640/zinsser_fig.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">Current through ion channels (From Liebovitch 1998)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The trouble this creates for the biologist is that there is no unique 'correct' value for a measurement. The value used to measure a property, such as length, area or volume, depends on the resolution used to make the measurement. Measurements made at different resolutions will yield different values. This means that the differences between the values measured by different people could be due to the fact that each person measured the property at a different resolution. Hence, the measurement of a value of a property at only one resolution is not useful to characterise fractal objects or processes. Instead we need to determine the scaling relationship. The scaling relationship shows how the values measured for a property depend on the resolution used to make the measurement. For example the surface area of a cell will increase as the magnification used to examine the cell increases. This now requires the biologist to measure many values at different resolutions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Fractals also present statistical problems for the biologist. The statistical knowledge of most scientists is limited to the statistical properties of Gaussian distributions. Fractals do not have the properties of Gaussian distributions. In order to understand the many fractal objects and processes in the natural world, the biologist is required to learn about the properties of stable distributions. </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">The variance of fractals is also usually large, and increases as more data are analysed. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">For example Luria and Delbruck (1943) wanted to determine whether mutations were: (1) occurring all the time but are only selected when there is a change in the environment or (2) occurring only in response to a change in the environment. To test this they let a cell multiply many times and then challenged its descendants with a killer virus. </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">If the mutations occur all the time, then by chance, some cells will become resistant to the killer virus before it is given to them. This resistant cell will divide and give rise to resistant daughter cells in subsequent generations. If the resistant cell is produced early on, it will form many resistant daughter cells. If it is produced latter on it will not have time to produce many resistant daughter cells. Each time the experiment is run the mutations will occur at different times. The variation in the timing is amplified by the resistance found in the daughter cells. This results in a large variation in the final number of resistant daughter cells when the experiment is run many times. If the mutations occur only in response to the virus, then by chance, some cells will become resistant to the killer virus when it is given. However in this case they will not have time to produce many resistant daughter cells: Thus there will only be a small variation in the final number of resistant cells when the experiment is completed. Luria and Deldruck (1943) found that there was a large variation in the number of resistant cells, thus they concluded that mutations occur all the time. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">This example shows how variance in a fractal system (the dividing of the cells) will be a large number. Knowing this, it is of interest to determine if the variance does or does not have a finite, limiting value. This can be done by measuring how the variance depends on the amount of data included. If the variance increases with the amount of data included, as it does in the Luria and Deldrucks (1943) experiment, then the data have fractal properties and the variance does not exist. The trouble is that we do not know how to perform statistical tests to determine if the parameters of the mechanism that generated the data have changed from one time to another or between experiments run under different conditions. The statistical tests available are based on the assumption that the variance is finite. These tests are not valid to analyse fractal data where the variance is infinite (Liebovitch, 1998). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">Like fractals, chaotic systems are numerous in biological systems. Chaos is defined as complex output that mimics random behaviour generated by simple, deterministic system (Liebovitch 1998). The opening and closing of ion channels, electrocardiogram (ECG) of heart beat pulses, ectroencephalogram (BEG) electrical recording of the nerve activity of the brain and even epidemics of measles are all examples of chaotic systems. We are used to thinking that the variability found in biological systems is due to mechanisms based on chance that reflect random processes. Thus attempting to classify systems as chaotic or random can be very difficult. Although techniques, developed by the mathematician Poincare around the 1900s, where data measured in time can be transformed into objects in space, called 'phase space', by a processes called 'embedding', make such classification easier. The major problem is that data generated chaotic system, even if they can be identified as such, are so complex, analysis of data using current mathematical methods is extremely difficult {Liebovitch 1998). </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">Besides the complexity of the output from these systems other problems also exist when dealing with them. If we re-run a non-chaotic system with almost the same starting values, we get almost the same values of the variable at the end. However, if we re-run a chaotic system with almost the same starting values, we get very different values of the variables at the end of the experiment. This is called sensitivity to initial conditions. Chaotic systems simply amplify small differences in initial conditions into large differences. This makes it extremely difficult for the biologist to control for an experiment. Even a small change in experimental method such as the time of day, slight variation in temperature or concentration of a substance could lead to different results. This may explain the large variation found in the results of biological experiments especially as the complexity of the system increases. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCen3vVdO-5mEez2vfGWlinmr6MSnfYchzVBLUeoABPGGwgST33ax8ayngtM5_cngbUngO7CoasNgvTkAdvfzKqOtyAyq4WLucrgWUcHSf8qi_Hznk6qkEYcoBBLsecprVhwrIWX8Rxz6v/s1600/Chaosorderchaos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCen3vVdO-5mEez2vfGWlinmr6MSnfYchzVBLUeoABPGGwgST33ax8ayngtM5_cngbUngO7CoasNgvTkAdvfzKqOtyAyq4WLucrgWUcHSf8qi_Hznk6qkEYcoBBLsecprVhwrIWX8Rxz6v/s640/Chaosorderchaos.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifurcation_theory">Bifurcation</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">Some chaotic systems also exhibit a property dubbed bifurcation. Bifurcation occurs when the value of a parameter (a certain property of the system) changes by a small amount, but there is a large change in the behaviour of the system (Liebovitch 1998). This can reduce the predictability of systems. For example Glycolysis, the process that transfers energy from sugar to ATP, exhibits bifurcation. There are numerous reactions in glycolysis. The overall speed of the reaction is set up by two steps that involve enzymes. Each enzyme speeds up one important reaction. The products produced by each of these reactions also affect the enzyme activity. Thus there is positive and negative feedback control in this reaction system. Markus and Hess (1985) studied what would happen if the input of sugar into these biochemical reactions happened in a periodic way. They found that for some frequencies the ATP concentration fluctuated in periodic way. For other frequencies, the ATP concentration fluctuated in a chaotic way. Only a small change in input was required to produce a sudden change in behaviour from periodic to chaotic fluctuations. This sudden change of behaviour as a parameter is varied is termed a bifurcation. We are used to thinking that small changes in parameters must produce similarly small changes in the behaviour of the system. This intuition is based on our experience with linear systems (common in physics and chemistry) and is not necessarily true for non-linear systems (common in biology). The behaviour of a non- linear system can change dramatically when there is only a small change in the value of a parameter. Biological experiments with similar experimental parameters can sometimes produce markedly different results. Biological effects do not always depend smoothly on the values of the experimental parameters. For example, the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation occur within a set of distinct 'windows' in the amplitude and the frequency parameters of the radiation supplied. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">It may be easy to think that much of what we study can be interpreted in different ways or can never be proven; but in this fact we are not alone. Even Einstein was quoted saying his theory of relativity could never be proven. This essay does not aim at decreasing or putting down the relative worth of biology as a science. Instead it aims at expressing the intelligence and achievements of biologists who have managed to achieve so much with so many odds against them. Zinsser also strongly expresses the need for scientists in general to have abroad range of interests rather than being specialised in anyone particular field. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">Perhaps it was Darwin’s interest in Geology, particularly in the works of Charles Lyell, who suggested the earth may have evolved to its present state, that smoothed the path for Darwin to accept evolution in animals (although Lyell did not at first accept Darwin’s views after publication of the Origin of the Species). T.H. Huxley, a friend of Darwin, latter wrote "I cannot believe that Lyell was for others, as for me, the chief agent in smoothing the road for Darwin". </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">It may be this ability of biologists to draw from different fields of art, science or even philosophy that makes biology such an exciting subject. Since many biologists believe and Zinsser states "whenever he (the biologist) attacks a problem -that before he can advance toward his objective, he must first recede into analysis of the individual elements that compose the complex systems with which he is occupied". This is perhaps one of the fundamental differences between biology and the "exact" sciences. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Beckner,
M.O. (1967) Organismic biology, in P. Edwards (ed.), <i>The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, </i>Vol 5, MacMillan, New York.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Bertalanffy,
L.von (1968) <i>General System Theory:
Foundations Development, Applications, </i><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Braziller</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Christian,
K.A. and Tracey C.R. (1981) The effect of the thermal environment on the
ability of hatchlings Galapagos land iguanas to avoid predation during
dispersal. <i>Oecologia </i>49: 218-223.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Garland</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">, T and
Losos, J.B. (1994) Ecological morphology
of locomotor performance in sqarmate reptiles. Pp 240-302. In: <i>Functional Morphology: Intergrative
Organismal Biology </i>(eds P.C. Wainwright and S.M. Reilly). <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Chicago</st1:placename></st1:place>
Press, Chicago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Jayne, B.C.
and Bennett, A.F. (1990) Selection of locomotor capacity in a natural
population of garder snakes. <i>Evolution </i>44:
1204-1229.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Liebovitch,
L.S. (1998) <i>Fractals and Chaos:
Simplified for the life sciences. </i><st1:placename w:st="on">Oxford</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> Press, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Luria, S.E.
and Delbruck, M (1943) Mutations of bacteria from virus sensitivity of virus
resistance. <i>Genetics</i> 28: 491-511.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Markus, M.,
Kuschmitz, D., and Hess, B. (1985) Properties of strange attractors in yeast
glycolsis. <i>Biophys. Chem. </i>22: 95-105.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Medwar,
P.B. and Medwar, J.S. (1983) Reductionism, In <i>A Philosophical Dictionary of Biology, </i><st1:placename w:st="on">Harvard</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> Press, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Mass.</st1:state></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Mohr, H.
(1989) Is the program of molecular biology reductionist? In Hoyningen-Huene P.
and Wuketits, F.M. (eds) <i>Reductionism and
Systems Theory in the life Sciences. </i>Kluwer Academic Publishers, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Wahungu,
G.M., Catterall, C.P., and Olsen, M.F. (1999) Selective herbivory by red-necked
pademelons <i>Thyloggale thetis </i>at the
rainforest margins: factors affecting predation rates. <i>Australian Journal of Ecology, </i>24: 577-586.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Wuketits,
F.M. (1989) Organisms, vital forces, and machines: classical controversies and
the contemporary discussion ‘Reductionism vs. Holism’. In Holyningen-Huene, P.
and Wuketits, F.M. (eds) <i>Reductionism and
Systems Theory in the life sciences.</i> Kluwer Academic Publishers, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Zinsser, H.
(1947) <i>Rats, Lice and History. </i>Little,
Brown and Company, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city></st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-42117849589986494382015-12-29T13:14:00.003-08:002015-12-29T13:18:17.576-08:00making gifs from video files in Matlab<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is an update to a previous post. The previous post is below, edited to suit the new code which runs in matlab. there is a link here to the new code which was co-written with David Solletti.<br />
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https://github.com/Christofer76/make-my-gif<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How to convert and resize an AVI to gif in matlab</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are giving a presentation, and you don't have awesome videos in it, you are either a 60 year old well renown expert in your field, or you are just plain mean. Videos are the highlight of any talk, the trouble is, they are often large, slow and have unpredictable issues when it come to finding the correct path file, since they always seem to be looking for some inaccessible folder, on a different computer, often hundreds of miles away. Then there you are, onstage, the video doesn't work, suddenly you have an angry crowd of caffeine fueled scientists wanting your open your skull to feast on the gooey stuff inside....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Oh no, Dr Christofer" you say, "how do i overcome these problems?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The answer is you use gifs! Gifs are without a doubt my new favourite format for showing moving images. So much better than videos, and only second to interpretive dance, which infact i did see one jerboa expert perform infront of a crowd of scientists. But if, like me, your interpretive dance skills are somewhat lacking you need the power of <a href="http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/lebowski1.gif">gif</a>! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How can you harness this power? Well, they can be made quite simply using the free ware program GIMP, but i had a few issues with this, particularly when it came to resizing my images. Plus it also meant getting a second program to extract individual frames from the movie. A better way would be to do both steps in matlab. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I looked on file exchange, and found some code called <a href="http://www.mathworks.com.au/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28772-avi-to-gif-convertor/content/avi2gif.m">avi2gif.m</a> but this seemed to use the 'aviread' function which didnt work in my version of matlab 2012a. Plus it also didnt let you resized your image or make it faster (you can only increase the delay between frames). Both are important if you want to get the file size down really low (for example imgur.com only takes gifs < 2mb)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the new code can be found <a href="https://github.com/Christofer76/make-my-gif">here</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">one important feature of the code, is the ability to reduce the frame number. Below is an example of this process. </span><br />
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anyway, that is my cheap and nasty code which worked for me. An important point to remember is the line "k = 1:2:nFrames etc" cuts out every other frame. I found if i did not do this, then the gif would run really slow. This might be an effect of using high speed film to make the videos. For example, this gif below was made using frameskip = 1<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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if it was any slower, we would have to use some sort of geological clock to time it by. Seriously it seems like that slow kid at school, who sat around eating glue all day. <br />
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so i used frameskip = 2<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgu7s9crxZ6a3WaKPSiQ0xGIs7PRssKDEdcnclR9QprW6_LuMg9Ij_96uguDN7JjcvCV59Rd2aoeXyK1CdmmOgOEYMwZpvBTG0s2qMQm44I-f8xuDhLDMUxHFrDHKKmoy4ocfhVdv9gOew/s1600/pano2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgu7s9crxZ6a3WaKPSiQ0xGIs7PRssKDEdcnclR9QprW6_LuMg9Ij_96uguDN7JjcvCV59Rd2aoeXyK1CdmmOgOEYMwZpvBTG0s2qMQm44I-f8xuDhLDMUxHFrDHKKmoy4ocfhVdv9gOew/s640/pano2.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">bit quicker but still its gonna run for a painfully long time when you are standing infront of a crowd trying to imagine yourself in everyones underwear</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />frameskip = 4</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv6-qAbHDQmuyRpXBcPkbABvkMtU3L6nbXwaAneyKo9W0EqIKfbQ4xxm1IUhc01xfkQxnTm_RgRQTTxEMBBrWytVwNmfcWaX07DheV3R41y1d95oq4RrLM0CVzrCnX2mn_IchwJioB3CjJ/s1600/pano4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv6-qAbHDQmuyRpXBcPkbABvkMtU3L6nbXwaAneyKo9W0EqIKfbQ4xxm1IUhc01xfkQxnTm_RgRQTTxEMBBrWytVwNmfcWaX07DheV3R41y1d95oq4RrLM0CVzrCnX2mn_IchwJioB3CjJ/s640/pano4.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /><br />works much better - seems smoother<br /><br /><br />Well let me know if you have any improvements comments or suggestions, and i look forward to seeing many gifs in the upcoming conference in portand! <br /></div>
christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-67277963883120325452015-11-29T10:29:00.000-08:002015-12-08T15:28:18.987-08:00Echidna Biomechanics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkkJFf8GCww2lBaZZApf392X3t_3_xa3v_GF22fTqSSk83z-BmgkB4cvs_5ZPWtTZCZ4f4vRUYdYr7nqWH4gKcrLvn7XQibs34GMUl_9yw8mJldTqpTwuFitro517V7pvJqevgdn6fLMsT/s1600/Picture2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkkJFf8GCww2lBaZZApf392X3t_3_xa3v_GF22fTqSSk83z-BmgkB4cvs_5ZPWtTZCZ4f4vRUYdYr7nqWH4gKcrLvn7XQibs34GMUl_9yw8mJldTqpTwuFitro517V7pvJqevgdn6fLMsT/s320/Picture2.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Ever wonder what an echidna does with all its time? </span><br />
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The echidna (<i>Tachyglossus aculeatus</i>) is a spiny ball of monotreme that looks something like this. Those spines are sharp mind you, and often leave a weird irritating/itchy marks on your skin after they stab into you. Given that its close relative the Platypus (<i>Ornithorhynchus anatinus</i>) has poisonous spurs on its hind limbs makes me wonder whether those spines aren't filled with something nasty. My point is that pretty much nothing is going to try to eat an echidna. Some germans once wrote a paper on what happens when you do. They came across the body of one of Australia's top predators, and one of my favourite animals, the Perentie (<i>Varanus giganteus</i>) which had the brave, yet somehow transparently stupid idea, to attempt eat an echidna whole and had in doing so met its own demise.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodrpZL5Lv7Ved6JJtc1GwFS_-pxeM0uAtT-1eoffzWVFUtZ6_Qary6ZlP3vkYnr-NBCdwMHBKkPpLngoDN2DNqnwhLXj76NExPNsXkXzYqnwCfpWyyOr0JiBr7-V96wlb1BI8o4fop5jz/s1600/Kirschner-et-al-perentie-vs-echidna-Dec-2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodrpZL5Lv7Ved6JJtc1GwFS_-pxeM0uAtT-1eoffzWVFUtZ6_Qary6ZlP3vkYnr-NBCdwMHBKkPpLngoDN2DNqnwhLXj76NExPNsXkXzYqnwCfpWyyOr0JiBr7-V96wlb1BI8o4fop5jz/s400/Kirschner-et-al-perentie-vs-echidna-Dec-2009.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: start;">The photo is from Kirschner </span><em style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">et al</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: start;">. (1996), <br />via </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"> </span><span class="fn" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/author/tetrapodzoology/" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Darren Naish">Darren Naish</a>'s blog . </span></td></tr>
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The perentie had come across the echidna (dead or alive?) and had tried to eat it but the spikes had pierced its throat, and it wasn't able to neither swallow, nor eject the echidna from its mouth. Its not clear what actually killed the lizard in the end (starvation maybe?) but its likely it had some time to reflect on this, and no doubt many other decisions it had made throughout its long life of being lizardy and awesome. I actually think this specimen is on display in the <a href="http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Animals+of+Queensland/Reptiles/Goannas#.Vlq-inYrK71">Queensland Museum</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So</span> the echidna is pretty much invenerable to predation, and presumably also asteroid strikes, lasers, paper cuts and anything less than a direct thermonuclear attack. So the question then arises, if you have nothing to fear what do you spend you afternoons doing? Hanging out by the local tree hollow? finding only the finest and tastiest termites available? The question, I am sure, has sometimes kept you up at night. Infact the question is all the more important when you consider that these little critters, with an Australia wide distribution, spend much of their time digging up the ground after termites, and in doing so move quite a bit of dirt. How much? No idea, but enough that these guys can start to change the profile of the landscape, putting them in that neat category of animals called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem_engineer">ecosystem engineers</a>. So if they are moving a bunch of dirt around, we ought to know about it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lo2nBI8r_duUi3sxMVjP7betRAUvPTaZgY3Uo8ux5Yw6HY5bD-p_ikpWuYdMpgkMc8vx2FXaVtNXijyMlwlKas5X-kFVdpizFgBhbaOciPKm4Uag7uL87Xoa-C3-icoePfNFXRD3VcYP/s1600/Sensor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lo2nBI8r_duUi3sxMVjP7betRAUvPTaZgY3Uo8ux5Yw6HY5bD-p_ikpWuYdMpgkMc8vx2FXaVtNXijyMlwlKas5X-kFVdpizFgBhbaOciPKm4Uag7uL87Xoa-C3-icoePfNFXRD3VcYP/s320/Sensor.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">To</span> answer this question I teamed up with two echidna researchers, <a href="http://environmentagriculture.curtin.edu.au/people/academic.cfm/C.Cooper">Christine Cooper</a> (Curtin), and my old PhD supervisor <a href="http://uwa.edu.au/people/philip.withers">Phil Withers</a> (UWA). They were looking at the thermoregulation in echidnas (which is interesting in itself, since they are half mammal half lizard, white hot balls of spikey terror) - which was a great opportunity to test out some sensors I had been working on. When I say I was working on them, I mean another academic <a href="http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/1138">Phil Terrill </a>from the school of engineering at UQ was working on them. I had originally anticipated using these sensors on some large varanid lizards, but it turns out that lizards are a giant pain in the ass to work with since they seem to travel forever, in no apparent direction, and bury themselves under piles of trees, rocks and dirt which make retrieving the sensors a little harder. Echidnas would surely be easier.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlVnqNcTxC_nYTFuX4WZL3l9FaATs_EUcnUdl_lRxO_vdrpqr2EDq1Qm23ldCuEE3QwKTunhtnmEXRCZRI7audanRXm_iHQ31a8rUNmRboeInrPMd49CHgAcWEhULoW4bVVa6cgLmBEIiP/s1600/Echidna2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlVnqNcTxC_nYTFuX4WZL3l9FaATs_EUcnUdl_lRxO_vdrpqr2EDq1Qm23ldCuEE3QwKTunhtnmEXRCZRI7audanRXm_iHQ31a8rUNmRboeInrPMd49CHgAcWEhULoW4bVVa6cgLmBEIiP/s320/Echidna2.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
So I set off back to WA, to a small patch of bush called Dryandra Woodland, which was known for two things. Spikey trees called Dryandra, and spikey monotremes called Echidnas. They certainly are easier to catch than lizards, and to my best knowledge nobody in the history of the universe has been bitten by one. That seemed all well and good, so we strapped the accelerometer sensors, some temperature sensors, a GPS and a radio tracker onto the back of these echidnas, and let them go again, safe in the knowledge that we could retrieve them at our hearts desire, gather the data, replace any batteries, and set them off again.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It would be a week long peek into the private life of an echidna. </span><br />
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Turns out life is of course not that simple, our echidnas, likely pissed at our decorating them with sensors, antennas, and what not, retreated to the deepest and darkest caves humanly possible, only to emerge in the hours of the darkest nights, where they would attempt to evade capture by three sleepy<br />
and exhausted scientists.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TnNUW0MxXzA4DaPQq4BAN2tWmCjvLTzQ9dXI_B5bLpXuC17zZg7KAbv_FsvATZmaKP3NbCjs6cORdpJBHFagMscEtQhROB2bI-hccnHFZ6W5GPgJbhSJjaXf02CQ3K-DCLfT4ht6BEpa/s1600/Cave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TnNUW0MxXzA4DaPQq4BAN2tWmCjvLTzQ9dXI_B5bLpXuC17zZg7KAbv_FsvATZmaKP3NbCjs6cORdpJBHFagMscEtQhROB2bI-hccnHFZ6W5GPgJbhSJjaXf02CQ3K-DCLfT4ht6BEpa/s320/Cave.jpg" width="320" /></a>They were very nearly successful and many nights we were forced to climb into their lairs to change the batteries on their back, or change sensors over. But in the end we did get some data, and since this is a biomechanics blog we are going to focus on the biomechanics data. The first and most important thing i did before releasing the echidnas was to perform the sacred ritual among biomechanists, the 'Calibration dance'. This dance has many forms, each unique to the scientist that devises them. They have, in my observations as a biomechanist, two equally important and fundamental functions. Firstly, they must relate the position and movement reference frame to a recording cameras, this would also be important for synchronising accelerometer signals to the cameras later. And secondly, some might argue more importantly, they must make the person performing the calibration dance look as ridiculous as possible. And so it was with great fortune that I was able to convince my co-researcher Christine Cooper to perform this sacred dance with the echidnas.<br />
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From this I could synchronise the camera to other activities, which we observed as the echidna performed, during its daring, yet slow and indecisive attempts, to escape from us once re-released. We got walking<br />
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/22HM1LA.gifv">http://i.imgur.com/22HM1LA.gifv</a><br />
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Digging<br />
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And in rare cases climbing<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1Uy9S5FyXxyJTgPIqScin9j60uJcb3EMvw8BJy0RKDdefm-EcXw2hKiUGXznzaC_NeGdOTyxeYBBP-5qNnxduIZfevh7sNKh9Mot_3kdHkwFvP0Xor5sDUnIzOXUqPlmngQiEzN2AHOb/s1600/Script.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1Uy9S5FyXxyJTgPIqScin9j60uJcb3EMvw8BJy0RKDdefm-EcXw2hKiUGXznzaC_NeGdOTyxeYBBP-5qNnxduIZfevh7sNKh9Mot_3kdHkwFvP0Xor5sDUnIzOXUqPlmngQiEzN2AHOb/s320/Script.jpg" width="320" /></a>We then divided the echidnas day in 30 second chunks, and used these signature accelerometer traces to assign to each short interval of time to a particular activity and in doing so work out exactly what the echidna was doing with its day.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And what does an echidna do with its day?? </span><br />
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It turns out not much. Many of our echidnas spend as much as 80% of their day hiding in rock caves, thinking about whatever it is that echidnas think about, ants probably.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOle3tVVblXR_rkVrTQ6hZ77D06Xr9pPIPVVqpSYuh5RkaESreP7sJJBHGXZHpiSDBgaO4Ty-jpxxmH4gNgWNPyW2pbBO9KPXxM1XKif4IwEBsTINM8UPoRUza5dxojonCAX3Ujw3ZWBOU/s1600/strfreq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOle3tVVblXR_rkVrTQ6hZ77D06Xr9pPIPVVqpSYuh5RkaESreP7sJJBHGXZHpiSDBgaO4Ty-jpxxmH4gNgWNPyW2pbBO9KPXxM1XKif4IwEBsTINM8UPoRUza5dxojonCAX3Ujw3ZWBOU/s200/strfreq.jpg" width="200" /></a>But from these short periods of activity we were able to get some interesting biomechanical data. Analysing the chunks of time when it was moving, and running a simple fourier analysis allowed us to determine the stride frequency of the echidna at different periods of the day. With some knowledge of the stride length of the echidna, we should be able to work out things like speed during different activities, and more. This will all help us figure out the private life of echidnas.<br />
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-58128978267588463512014-09-05T22:31:00.002-07:002014-09-05T23:13:13.083-07:00Dissection of the hindlimb of monitor lizards: V. varius and V. komodoensis, Part 1 of 4, Superficial Dorsal aspect.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the major questions I am trying to determine in my
research is how muscle and bone strains change with body size and habitat among
Australia’s giant lizards the Varanids (aka monitor lizards aka goannas aka
large uncooperative lizards).<o:p></o:p></div>
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When I first attempted to dissect the hindlimb muscle of
monitor lizards I was amazed about how little information there was on the
topic. In the end the two most helpful bits of literature was the Snyder paper
from 1954, and the book chapter, The Appendicular locomotor apparatus of
Lepidosaurs, by Russell and Bauer, (2008), in Biology of the Reptilia, Vol
21. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Luckily I had a visit from muscle expert Taylor Dick, from
Simon Fraser University Canada, and we were able to dissect some big
lizards. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As a guide to help anyone else who might also be silly enough
to want to follow along this line of inquiry we have made a guide below to help
you identify some of the major muscles in the lizard hindlimb. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There will be 4 posts in total, this post will focus on the
dorsal superficial aspect of the upper and lower hindlimb. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Varanus varius:</u> This specimen was freshly sacrificed, and the muscles are very clear and easily defined. Click on the video below for a walk through. <br />
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<b><u>Varanus komodoensis</u></b>: Dissection of the Komodo dragon. This specimen had been frozen for 7 years, so the separation of the muscles is a little bit more difficult. <span style="text-align: left;">Click on the video below for a walk through.</span></div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-7976133994843340192014-08-04T07:15:00.002-07:002014-08-04T07:15:23.206-07:00Evolution of bipedal running <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYvQQ0rNw3B1NLbj_LwUKlEta12pYRkqb8SMPymbKIWrVZX9DHtSXU0ISXkzqkAc9HOPL03TJARxqvfR7cNe_5AwseX60gvair2BcDhjZ69U_ShCpTdHs9onoyAHF4JWgV5l9IGacUPP4/s1600/Clemente_cover2_sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYvQQ0rNw3B1NLbj_LwUKlEta12pYRkqb8SMPymbKIWrVZX9DHtSXU0ISXkzqkAc9HOPL03TJARxqvfR7cNe_5AwseX60gvair2BcDhjZ69U_ShCpTdHs9onoyAHF4JWgV5l9IGacUPP4/s1600/Clemente_cover2_sml.jpg" height="200" width="154" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome lizard shot by <br />
<a href="http://www.simonpynt.com/">Simon Pynt</a> which <br />
sadly the journal did not <br />
want on its cover </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Frutiger-Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Frutiger-Black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This week my paper on the evolution of bipedalism came out in the journal
Evolution. This work is part of a long ongoing project understanding why these
lizards sometimes run on two legs and sometimes run on four, and why Australian
agamid lizards in particular seem to be so very good at the former. But to
understand this we need a little bit of background into Bipedalism and why
lizards are so weird. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSxgb7B3w6KrU3LBZB-5eNPBJ5_8dyv5EQD3rDNxWPwvDNZltHo18_8h_aST6nC7hlEEBQM1BG7xQlgKuVVY9uS2JtD5tPy0RSD6tou5gDAQta9UyuijmNSFYidmGIsseECIDz-a5oZZg3/s1600/dino2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSxgb7B3w6KrU3LBZB-5eNPBJ5_8dyv5EQD3rDNxWPwvDNZltHo18_8h_aST6nC7hlEEBQM1BG7xQlgKuVVY9uS2JtD5tPy0RSD6tou5gDAQta9UyuijmNSFYidmGIsseECIDz-a5oZZg3/s1600/dino2.jpg" height="144" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome picture of a dinosaur<br />
I stole from the web. To make this blog <br />
post look cooler. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Frutiger-Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Frutiger-Black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Frutiger-Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Frutiger-Black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bipedalism
(running on two legs) evolved independently many times, for example in hopping
marsupials (like kangaroos), hopping placentals (like kangaroo rats), primates
(like us), birds, dinosaurs, lizards, insects, and this awesome <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wgla5smg64">octopus</a>! In birds,
primates and dinosaurs the forelimbs appear to be used for something else so
bipedalism makes sense, and hopping on two legs can save energy, but neither of
these reasons seem to apply to lizards. Further I showed in an earlier paper
that bipedal lizards are not faster, nor can they run for longer. So why are
they doing it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEL24_WE9o09YFXBF6TcnX52GNzNoctAsmCV-_lciiNtydpCv9kNGoQ_BTgFuBbRCp0nZ_OOGIapHPiIrDpz9LVr4Lwz-ePwuoBX27V0UQ56I6PcR9BfpR19y3l-kpPsHRo3zGMehJpgu2/s1600/slide0009_image035.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEL24_WE9o09YFXBF6TcnX52GNzNoctAsmCV-_lciiNtydpCv9kNGoQ_BTgFuBbRCp0nZ_OOGIapHPiIrDpz9LVr4Lwz-ePwuoBX27V0UQ56I6PcR9BfpR19y3l-kpPsHRo3zGMehJpgu2/s1600/slide0009_image035.gif" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Frutiger-Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Frutiger-Black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Well a dutch researcher called Peter Aerts actually suggested a different
reason. Perhaps, he suggested, lizards were not trying to run bipedally on
purpose, but rather they were trying to do something else, maybe they were
trying to become more manoeuvrable. One way to become more manoeuvrable, is to
shift all your mass backwards (which makes it easier to turn corners), and then
accelerate quickly. Unfortunately for the lizards these things have a side
effect, just like when a motorcycle accelerates too quickly, when a lizard
shifts its mass backwards and accelerates too quickly, it can cause the front
of the body to pop up, like its popping a wheelie. Seen in this light,
bipedalism in some lizards might have been an accident, just a consequence of
accelerating too hard, and this seems to match some of the data I have
collected before on lizards. There is certainly an acceleration threshold where
a lizard will pop on its two back legs, and a model produced by Peter Aerts
even predicts when this should happen. And this model matches the data, for
most lizards. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvfb1JRrWZt4NksEEzY_AjQspubsQpqsKqLHwZ93X6ZZ60iF_0vXL2LK7-SzD75DuLGtaz4er_GivcoodE8ZnCaOTDUlcw1hy1WoBoWkycG02T9j-JS2uirDTtHli68JlleBfTmIRD9Rr8/s1600/dei_head.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvfb1JRrWZt4NksEEzY_AjQspubsQpqsKqLHwZ93X6ZZ60iF_0vXL2LK7-SzD75DuLGtaz4er_GivcoodE8ZnCaOTDUlcw1hy1WoBoWkycG02T9j-JS2uirDTtHli68JlleBfTmIRD9Rr8/s1600/dei_head.jpg" height="248" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another awesome dinosaur photo i stole from the <a href="http://www.sdnhm.org/archive/exhibits/feathered/">web</a>. Geez<br />
these dinosaurs would have been so bad ass! </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Frutiger-Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Frutiger-Black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The trouble is that some lizards seem to beat the model. Some lizards
seem to be able to run for much longer and at lower accelerations than is
predicted from this accidental model. Are these lizards exploiting bipedalism?
taking advantage of the accident? This is actually not so unheard of in nature,
infact it’s common enough that scientists gave it a name, they called it an
Exaptation (to differentiate it from the perhaps more familiar adaptation).
Exaptations are exciting since they show us another way traits can evolve.
Infact one of the most common examples of exaptation is the evolution of
feathers in birds. Feathers, which we now commonly associate with flight in
birds, did not originally evolve for this purpose. Lots of recent reports have
shown us that the origin of feathers predates that of birds and are present in
dinosaurs, meaning feathers probably evolved for another reason, like keeping
dinosaurs warm. It was only later that birds exploited these feathers to make their
remarkable flying wings. So could bipedalism, like the feathers of birds, be an
exaptation? This is what I set out to find. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVK6bHfdOGT3TF70Te-3BlfM_xNcZDSxEfyI7-b1J7-P2wQ9xNHs1ktXYrzphmKFnxOQFs2SO4SNYUD9MTtFNRGz7hNRH0St9l6OJ42FCCIWnj8NI9ljTRECCB66lduFFo2sY_OMz_a-qL/s1600/conmap_sml_mod4pt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVK6bHfdOGT3TF70Te-3BlfM_xNcZDSxEfyI7-b1J7-P2wQ9xNHs1ktXYrzphmKFnxOQFs2SO4SNYUD9MTtFNRGz7hNRH0St9l6OJ42FCCIWnj8NI9ljTRECCB66lduFFo2sY_OMz_a-qL/s1600/conmap_sml_mod4pt.jpg" height="302" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure showing the evolution of the mass distribution<br />
among lizards. Red means a backwards shift, blue forwards.<br />
The bipedal lizards are marked with a red box. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Frutiger-Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Frutiger-Black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">First I had to know, do lizards (and their ancestors) which run bipedally
have their body mass pushed backwards, perhaps to try and become more manoeuvrable?
I looked at this across 124 species of lizards, basically any lizard I could
get my hands on from the Queensland museum, with the help of my student at the
time Nicolas Wu, and I found yes indeed, the lineages leading to bipedalism had
shifted their body centre of mass backwards. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Frutiger-Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Frutiger-Black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Next I tested the model, I calculated (based on Aerts’ model) when
lizards should go bipedal, and then ran these lizards a bunch of times to
calculate the exact acceleration where they switched from four legs to two
legs. As predicted some lizards matched the model quite well, but others were
able to beat it, running bipedally sooner than expected. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmLrs7aLwsNZS5tNo-Fvrv-0MYW6Eo5z2g7gV11hZdWZNcaDllL_93sV4K18FFqBy7K1-tyoz-kMIexGGzA5eQZnKJusj4Jf_9nKrBYsNPld_KQkvr3A0ukzhqte98kmLEMTKpBU3bUSM9/s1600/transition.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmLrs7aLwsNZS5tNo-Fvrv-0MYW6Eo5z2g7gV11hZdWZNcaDllL_93sV4K18FFqBy7K1-tyoz-kMIexGGzA5eQZnKJusj4Jf_9nKrBYsNPld_KQkvr3A0ukzhqte98kmLEMTKpBU3bUSM9/s1600/transition.gif" height="356" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is one of the rare videos i got of a lizard transitioning from 4 legs to 2! </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim5-9rO7mPkSOYMFs4F6iyELGYpbonLO-CUuDZx965PUwxPNt-uaqNz7qWsNdzGYXw2k8KqTuVbxjbD3fxyUhHp1z76hyphenhyphenBbnjO1xQelkZ4bAyJMwalu_7vwL2oKm4Nku473nLnihiIk8TV/s1600/node+ages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim5-9rO7mPkSOYMFs4F6iyELGYpbonLO-CUuDZx965PUwxPNt-uaqNz7qWsNdzGYXw2k8KqTuVbxjbD3fxyUhHp1z76hyphenhyphenBbnjO1xQelkZ4bAyJMwalu_7vwL2oKm4Nku473nLnihiIk8TV/s1600/node+ages.jpg" height="275" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Frutiger-Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: Frutiger-Black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Finally we looked at where these differences
are greatest in the family tree of Australian agamids. We found the ones that
matched the model best occurred very early on in the evolutionary tree, but as
the tree branched out the differences became greater. New species were beating
the model more and more. All this adds up to one thing, an exaptation. Bipedalism
first appeared on the scene a long time ago, and those that ran bipedally did
so only by accident. But at some point some lizards started exploiting this,
running bipedally further and more often than expected, taking advantage of the
consequence. This is exciting since not only are we seeing an exaptation
happen, but it means that running on two lizards actually conveys an advantage
to these lizards. Just what this advantage is thought, I have no idea…yet. </span><br />
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-72769516471473111902014-06-10T01:30:00.000-07:002014-06-10T04:41:02.595-07:00Notes on running large lizards over forceplates<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4QWVAyssJpRbGiygi309aXgsP-yctPUSxhoKUUAdbR_rw5cwQGWmKg3_EQhyQm6I2PD5lf68LSMfcTarXFvWEQyb1IDJA017ckgZcCEkJPJIyHDA10mIEc6T3ROCKYBdhxssD4cNOrZ7/s1600/SAM_3470.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4QWVAyssJpRbGiygi309aXgsP-yctPUSxhoKUUAdbR_rw5cwQGWmKg3_EQhyQm6I2PD5lf68LSMfcTarXFvWEQyb1IDJA017ckgZcCEkJPJIyHDA10mIEc6T3ROCKYBdhxssD4cNOrZ7/s1600/SAM_3470.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taylor Dick, SFU (probably didn't expect <br />
to be holding a lizard that big anytime<br />
during her stay).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Anyone who has had the misfortune of stumbling upon this
blog, and particularly those who have suffered through many of its posts might
have noticed that one of the main themes is determining how muscle and bone
strains change with body size and habitat among Australia’s giant lizards the
Varanids (aka monitor lizards aka goannas aka large uncooperative lizards).
Recently I had convinced Muscle expert Taylor Dick from SFU to come to
Australia to study these questions with the eventual goal of building a musculoskeletal model of these lizards in the open-source biomechanics software OpenSim.
She had already endured one trip out to the Australian desert in order to catch
these <a href="http://biomechanicsdownunder.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/how-to-catch-giant-varanid-lizard.html">beasts</a>, but more was yet to come.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLSYZpedkcsKxIvDb2jHoYmS1kPHwb_KA3iJ-tTeHifW8uQ502EbHHYC5KaqvrI_nwXMWxJ-c_7PhoFr7HNwLX9cMsNtzuSx2iuOQO_sLzT3FvMHD-_NmWEuYBcqRTzEwAYM9DW0LkQOHc/s1600/10156199_10152355416306639_1561644648_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLSYZpedkcsKxIvDb2jHoYmS1kPHwb_KA3iJ-tTeHifW8uQ502EbHHYC5KaqvrI_nwXMWxJ-c_7PhoFr7HNwLX9cMsNtzuSx2iuOQO_sLzT3FvMHD-_NmWEuYBcqRTzEwAYM9DW0LkQOHc/s1600/10156199_10152355416306639_1561644648_o.jpg" height="115" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example output of the force plate<br />
from a dragon lizard, A. gilberti</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgf16loseOi6UHVmeBETUnuyPbUrh7giZlAUCcJ_VwbeJVpDogp_Y8Uv6pEMWbCbhG1pFUizHLngwLxxuBi7rHsJBJYoIVsfTCYr-h5RIDw0pmGukospcUO-jSxr0YtftHsiR1o7s6Yaz/s1600/IMG_20131104_145201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgf16loseOi6UHVmeBETUnuyPbUrh7giZlAUCcJ_VwbeJVpDogp_Y8Uv6pEMWbCbhG1pFUizHLngwLxxuBi7rHsJBJYoIVsfTCYr-h5RIDw0pmGukospcUO-jSxr0YtftHsiR1o7s6Yaz/s1600/IMG_20131104_145201.jpg" height="149" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Force plate design, shown here without<br />
a plate on the top. Photo probably taken<br />
during one of its many repair attempts</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The second part of this project was to simultaneously
measure forces and kinematics of these lizards which would act as valuable
input parameter for this model. To do this I had constructed a 15 meter long
racetrack at the university, along with a custom made force plate which would
be buried in the ground, for the lizards to run over. I will add more details
on the forceplate later, but basically it consists of 4 octagon rings arranged
at each corner of a metal plate. Each is capable of measuring forces in two
directions vertical and horizontal, and by positioning octagons in adjacent
corners at 90 deg angles to one another I was capable of measuring fore-aft,
lateral and vertical forces. An added bonus of having 4 vertical force sensors
in each corner is that I could accurately estimate the centre of pressure of
the foot during the stride.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90kXrkCQCblMN3ibJYawRwG0B_inbTDhFjKfrD7EY4-fVdBYAjzBNtEADcpHZ1WEuKDSd_zgB82-EqINBFRVVW11llgK7kCTM3iuix2-yDYatwqXb-k7KKVl8BbhRWoBCSRWmDKtIYoXm/s1600/SAM_2853.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90kXrkCQCblMN3ibJYawRwG0B_inbTDhFjKfrD7EY4-fVdBYAjzBNtEADcpHZ1WEuKDSd_zgB82-EqINBFRVVW11llgK7kCTM3iuix2-yDYatwqXb-k7KKVl8BbhRWoBCSRWmDKtIYoXm/s1600/SAM_2853.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taylor with probably not enough laptops</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspF-q2HWNQSccNUWKMKyFsPeDZB1lZu3qFz58DKtLcHp3cgZWD1i55u9PNDvveRC6A8IfrfC6xGbA0ud2f3-IwNfyaWeHrIs5VtsUYKAihOWn2zzxAtrhqwNWi9CwDMmbui7cxbr4w7Ul/s1600/SAM_3157.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspF-q2HWNQSccNUWKMKyFsPeDZB1lZu3qFz58DKtLcHp3cgZWD1i55u9PNDvveRC6A8IfrfC6xGbA0ud2f3-IwNfyaWeHrIs5VtsUYKAihOWn2zzxAtrhqwNWi9CwDMmbui7cxbr4w7Ul/s1600/SAM_3157.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of our uncooperative<br />
subjects</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My thoughts were that building the force plate would be the
most difficult part of this project, and having already done so, I was under
the ill-begotten conclusion that the hardest part was over. But yet, as always I
had forgotten the type of lizards I was dealing with, and the kind of
misfortune which befalls a scientist. We lost several days battling noisy
electrical systems in the animal yards, and were forced to take several trips
to and from the lab to repair the force plate which I had so loving crafted for
lab work, but for which the real world with its various sharp protruding objects,
it was no match. When we finally had a working system, two high speed cameras
on a custom built scaffold, combined with the force plate, it seemed again the
worst was over. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwFryOuEh5ovho-WOwUSzoB28xrQWPmoA5QvUSOkIj45uFLICP_QMYqHP2hn7kSfSahberp_xz_NkCjKSv5006sY8QZN3fVlvTxdVpgN9X9wwg9a4pfQftIaNojIRb6jd4dICXZ1EXeUd/s1600/SAM_3206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwFryOuEh5ovho-WOwUSzoB28xrQWPmoA5QvUSOkIj45uFLICP_QMYqHP2hn7kSfSahberp_xz_NkCjKSv5006sY8QZN3fVlvTxdVpgN9X9wwg9a4pfQftIaNojIRb6jd4dICXZ1EXeUd/s1600/SAM_3206.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">trying to lead via example. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We began running the lizards – and it was time for the lizards to
shine. Yet by the end of several hours of work we had only a handful of useful
trial. It seems the lizards, for reasons I can only assume are nefariously
motivated, refused to step wholly on the platform. Instead preferring the mind-blowingly
frustrating alternative of stepping neatly to one side of the force plate, or
on the edge of the platform, such that while data temptingly appeared upon the
screen it was utterly useless, since the proportion of the force directed onto the force plate could not be known. <o:p></o:p><br />
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We attempted everything under the sun to encourage lizards
stepping onto the forceplate, including doubling the size of the plate, halving the width of the racetrack, and painting it wholly
black, such that it matched the surrounding carpet, and could not be mistaken
for the presumably treacherous hazard it appeared, to be avoided at all costs.
Yet none of these appeared to increase our success rate, which was as low as 1
in 30 runs. As can be seen in the video below<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/OXFgkxJJWn8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
However, perseverance paid off, and by the end of the week we had
collected over 60 successful trials, from these giant, largely uncooperative beasts. Below is a video of the rare and elusive, "successful trial" </div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-11577042745815557012014-05-11T01:35:00.000-07:002014-05-11T01:38:11.659-07:00How to catch a giant varanid lizard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg519DnaRW6v1mqGFCbJq_P2UAoj5K0miOtEBKaXF-wOu4sAD6LE6FubxZ1VPsj8U7auPyJJXBN7Kv3q6ssL2yCHgOLnwodPgWneSgVietHlUNau6RCjt3P0R0kZGNdw-isRVjp976rRc2Q/s1600/terrestrial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg519DnaRW6v1mqGFCbJq_P2UAoj5K0miOtEBKaXF-wOu4sAD6LE6FubxZ1VPsj8U7auPyJJXBN7Kv3q6ssL2yCHgOLnwodPgWneSgVietHlUNau6RCjt3P0R0kZGNdw-isRVjp976rRc2Q/s1600/terrestrial.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVkx6SAy0R3mEWQlqBs6S1jCShmrsnyPxzHedVStook3C5t5fw_huEVx4SZWZEAJHIpTuyIHbHKkaLQDAY3jaeWj9Bb6nizaAaLQMjorpTCVpk7b7cyPRtJRVH28u0aU3LNIKBC-coGp5/s1600/CLimbing2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVkx6SAy0R3mEWQlqBs6S1jCShmrsnyPxzHedVStook3C5t5fw_huEVx4SZWZEAJHIpTuyIHbHKkaLQDAY3jaeWj9Bb6nizaAaLQMjorpTCVpk7b7cyPRtJRVH28u0aU3LNIKBC-coGp5/s1600/CLimbing2.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>Recently at the SEB conference in Spain I convinced a muscle
expert, Taylor Dick from Simon Fraser University in Canada, to come out to
Australia to study muscle variation in Australian varanids. The purpose of this study was based upon a previous paper I
had written “Lizard Tricks” of which I wrote a blog about <a href="http://biomechanicsdownunder.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/lizard-tricks-overcoming-conflicting.html">here</a>. But incase you
missed it, basically I had found that differences in the Kinematics of the
lizards hindlimb were not based upon changes in lizard size (as I had expected)
but rather were related to changes in the lizards habitat. The Arboreal lizards
(both big and small) had a crouched, sprawling posture, as if they were in a
perpetual pushup, the terrestrial lizards (again both big and small) had a more
upright posture. The reason for this difference was probably since arboreal
lizards wanted to be close to the surface they were climbing on to avoid
toppling over (and so had the crouched posture), while the terrestrial lizards
wanted to improve stride length, and so had longer more upright limbs.</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuQIq2FixNeQU2VefjeacW9AEzvXm2x66pHsu0nWlW9DEtd4BnOTzqcHPWcDbyvlkkrUvOOFoZmWvoWEH23LEfVOpfFWO5DzVavMJ6K_s5gaBNZg7mRFOPfzhlCDu3hG2q2-xLmsvRRmw5/s1600/SAM_2525.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuQIq2FixNeQU2VefjeacW9AEzvXm2x66pHsu0nWlW9DEtd4BnOTzqcHPWcDbyvlkkrUvOOFoZmWvoWEH23LEfVOpfFWO5DzVavMJ6K_s5gaBNZg7mRFOPfzhlCDu3hG2q2-xLmsvRRmw5/s1600/SAM_2525.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqhurL7jDKcK3j7iphUFNeTRI-b1qr0hrRk2AGpxLQkSAlmqs7UkNPGXt3Aka-W7nXvCteKKTnT746g0IPuqWw5esGEK347aiKnm-hJv_BGsuHXcr8OnjGcCaCM-LkpTw6MQ-TrXVxu7c/s1600/SAM_2533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqhurL7jDKcK3j7iphUFNeTRI-b1qr0hrRk2AGpxLQkSAlmqs7UkNPGXt3Aka-W7nXvCteKKTnT746g0IPuqWw5esGEK347aiKnm-hJv_BGsuHXcr8OnjGcCaCM-LkpTw6MQ-TrXVxu7c/s1600/SAM_2533.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>But the problem with this is that these changes in posture
are going to cause big changes in limb bone and muscle stresses, especially in
the bigger guys. And so that’s where Taylor came in. She was to come over and
study the differences in the forces produced while running and look for any
differences in muscle architecture between climbing and terrestrial lizards,
and in doing so hopefully solve the problems I had created. </div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCmdAaWUImmb6MsDYeOy3RuDdiUpWPiCEMDaURG8kU2Ky-M-EPt2C_5vbwaIfcgkxhov2TcGChyphenhyphenPQVopmBCy0Jewy4EH9vfBEdbNQVkxYaImEd5uvKHUYFHYe4pDkqOcyP6Up8-D4uw4KK/s1600/SAM_2539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCmdAaWUImmb6MsDYeOy3RuDdiUpWPiCEMDaURG8kU2Ky-M-EPt2C_5vbwaIfcgkxhov2TcGChyphenhyphenPQVopmBCy0Jewy4EH9vfBEdbNQVkxYaImEd5uvKHUYFHYe4pDkqOcyP6Up8-D4uw4KK/s1600/SAM_2539.jpg" height="143" width="200" /></a>But I wasn’t going
to make it easy for her. No sooner had she got off her Trans Canadian flight (or whatever
passes for airlines in Canada) than we were off to the bush to catch some giant
varanids. And so the rest of this blog serves as a first persons perspective to
the type of skills required to catch these big lizards. The first day turned out rainy and miserable, and the only
reptiles we ended up seeing were a couple of turtles which were trying to cross
the road. And soon Taylor learnt a valuable lesson in using the
dunny block in the outback when she ran out of the toilet screaming cause a
(in my opinion) particularly friendly looking green tree frog happened to be
occupying the toilet seat she was hoping to utilise.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRu7QCr3LLfnLyq4S6XTrBXn8aBCGcs9jkhIfO9EtXYHwlAfW29i5n5TlG0B4qkPCLJOOrLsvgCOJQ9at1o_6RFekYjJnVtK1wXrhFdf8O6RPplAmtxkjyqJYSU5cfcw3lXeK4R3VUD3mD/s1600/SAM_2563.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRu7QCr3LLfnLyq4S6XTrBXn8aBCGcs9jkhIfO9EtXYHwlAfW29i5n5TlG0B4qkPCLJOOrLsvgCOJQ9at1o_6RFekYjJnVtK1wXrhFdf8O6RPplAmtxkjyqJYSU5cfcw3lXeK4R3VUD3mD/s1600/SAM_2563.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></div>
But soon the sun did eventually shine, and by the third day
we spotted our first lizard. It was a medium sized Varanus varius. Being
members of the most uncooperative group of reptiles typically they will choose
the tallest and most unclimbable (well for humans) tree as an avenue of escape,
but this lizard made the poor decision of escaping up a perfectly good climbing
pine tree. The secret to catching a lizard up a tree is that it is generally
better to be stupider than the lizard. And so I found myself most of the way up
a tiny swaying pine tree chasing a lizard which, unsurprisingly had climbed to
the very meagrely supported top. However I was successful in getting the noose
over its head and coercing it back down. We had caught our first lizard.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLRgnDx29QosxwbWOQBvhwK2aQ-szqTpOXlVhSaIwwey_BhtUzryW2ICvciLHz5cRr5yq7fN6n-t2MnKE7JHn24UXcQ2J-keTHaDG0NJPYJbiVgJVkQ7ZCcGd_xah-RBis9ZtlkKak_NQ9/s1600/SAM_2568.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLRgnDx29QosxwbWOQBvhwK2aQ-szqTpOXlVhSaIwwey_BhtUzryW2ICvciLHz5cRr5yq7fN6n-t2MnKE7JHn24UXcQ2J-keTHaDG0NJPYJbiVgJVkQ7ZCcGd_xah-RBis9ZtlkKak_NQ9/s1600/SAM_2568.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>The second lizard proved to be smarter than the first. It
chose a very thin, but extremely tall gum tree as its method of escape. My
first attempt to get it down involved taping three lengths of beach fishing
rods, with a long noose, together. I had tried this technique before, and
previously it had failed spectacularly, but I was sure the theory was sound.
Sometime later I had added another failed attempt to my list, yet I still feel
deep inside, one day, my patented super long lizard noose technique might just
work. In the end, it was the less eloquent but ultimately more successful
technique of shaking the bejesus out of the tree enticed the lizard down to a
lower and more manageable height in the tree. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCCAWumGc6J1o4bGrITpmJqMRNVwN86x1v6OmctrPjl8_-C5qSKdOAeDRSQ0F7_Rm99LSCUhZhK9yK70Rtc5v3H6sFvdfvBiw_jnNak-JwuFL_K03pyLN7L2zJpOO1-DoA4p5i0_TdN0Z/s1600/SAM_2577.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCCAWumGc6J1o4bGrITpmJqMRNVwN86x1v6OmctrPjl8_-C5qSKdOAeDRSQ0F7_Rm99LSCUhZhK9yK70Rtc5v3H6sFvdfvBiw_jnNak-JwuFL_K03pyLN7L2zJpOO1-DoA4p5i0_TdN0Z/s1600/SAM_2577.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_KOmrQbvuBuqvdq4lBOBpV-5uIyVwclZ5y4CM2CGFP4MznrtBJMQv8zrkGnNdidIBge5OAve1IgShnvQZ2FCMjiTLQFiFKauetjqYXup4sVQ0jhpqajXYPLTnfYhyphenhyphenXhVqvZrB8NhDd3-/s1600/SAM_2575.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_KOmrQbvuBuqvdq4lBOBpV-5uIyVwclZ5y4CM2CGFP4MznrtBJMQv8zrkGnNdidIBge5OAve1IgShnvQZ2FCMjiTLQFiFKauetjqYXup4sVQ0jhpqajXYPLTnfYhyphenhyphenXhVqvZrB8NhDd3-/s1600/SAM_2575.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>The next two lizards we caught were two very large Varius
which were in comparison much easier to catch. We found them wondering around
the local garbage tip, which might explain their smell, and their indifference
to my presence. They barely climbed to head height up the nearest tree and thus
were relatively easier to coerce down. And so we returned to Brisbane, maybe
not somewhat wiser but certainly four big lizards the richer. The next part of
our plan was to run them over the force platform. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-27768928536775917682014-02-18T04:38:00.000-08:002014-02-18T04:38:29.920-08:00Making nice figures<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Figures are Important</span></b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQH1DyUfE3DBa63HZNzNm3sXX4Z-xPf7C9RCD2QLdRzTLfS9DNASxafAv9VAYNQhoLlNmZr-BRxdE22yU0J0Fmm4np_gedXr9X4aaJEC_OTnjsww26PQgxx-mtdvuiNqbU9QEC8_gPXYHO/s1600/1_monitorlizard_anatomyflow.jpg" height="223" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12871.html</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQH1DyUfE3DBa63HZNzNm3sXX4Z-xPf7C9RCD2QLdRzTLfS9DNASxafAv9VAYNQhoLlNmZr-BRxdE22yU0J0Fmm4np_gedXr9X4aaJEC_OTnjsww26PQgxx-mtdvuiNqbU9QEC8_gPXYHO/s1600/1_monitorlizard_anatomyflow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Everyone seems to know that figures are the most important part of the paper, so why not do a little research into not only what makes a great figure, but also what makes a unique memorable figure. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Before you write a paper, or even start a project, its a good idea to know what figures you want to make. There are many different ways to display data, so have a look through them and decide which ones might be suitable for you. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These are some websites I like to take inspiration from </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery">https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://nicefigure.tumblr.com/">http://nicefigure.tumblr.com/</a></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSH2hHKlx0BBPE2pzuhBapwF_foOhEcymbLOaDkih6MDad8tMwy3_DCG4X_vzVsVyB8t1HqwruSagpizVPyCKJlEdklnQrA2ZIbsxZS1q_swC5iyY-opNrgo9xmJ47MqTVGTFW7QPcSLuJ/s1600/journal.pone.0007783.g002.png" height="400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Biomechanics of Running Indicates Endothermy in Bipedal Dinosaurs by Herman Pontzer Vivian Allen John R. Hutchinson" width="280" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0007783</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One important part of making figures is the use of color. Most journals will let you publish online color figures, but these must also be view-able in black and white (greyscale) format. It is therefore important to vary shading in your figure between subjects or variables. I found the following websites very helpful in choosing colors regimes for figures. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://colorbrewer2.org/">http://colorbrewer2.org/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Change the number of classes you need for you data, then use the 'eyedropper' tool from your graphics program. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Also here is a pa</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">per from nature methods, showing the best color and shading techniques for figures. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v7/n8/full/nmeth0810-573.html">http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v7/n8/full/nmeth0810-573.html</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finally, most people know this, but for most figures (that aren't photos) you will need to build your figure in a program which can produce a scalable vector graphic. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Corel and Adobe illustrator are the most popular but also cost money</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.inkscape.org/en/">Inkscape</a> is a good free alternative. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Learn how to use one program well, its worth the time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let me know if you have any other helpful suggestions i can add.</span><br />
<br /></div>
christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-78248191412036840632013-10-14T17:33:00.001-07:002013-10-15T01:24:12.014-07:00Lizard tricks: overcoming conflicting requirements of speed versus climbing ability by altering biomechanics of the lizard stride<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA3F3KPZfCPJQOK-8ZFKcspY1Vl3l7Xv1GLJo7HVrBASQnsL20hoxmbSMrdkrnzcuVo2Rk6so7AtahprvhCQmRRk_aERnhLayBjmclcBM7Z1owsVOCuyw_EpRjMxA5Q57G3y9pSJOF3b-G/s1600/F1.medium.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA3F3KPZfCPJQOK-8ZFKcspY1Vl3l7Xv1GLJo7HVrBASQnsL20hoxmbSMrdkrnzcuVo2Rk6so7AtahprvhCQmRRk_aERnhLayBjmclcBM7Z1owsVOCuyw_EpRjMxA5Q57G3y9pSJOF3b-G/s320/F1.medium.gif" width="245" /></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So recently I managed to publish a paper in the Journal of
Experimental Biology about my dissertation work looking at the locomotion in
Australia's biggest and baddest lizards the monitor lizards. I called it
'Lizard Tricks', not only cause I think they are doing something neat, but
because I think what we see in these lizards would be a nice little engineering
principal we could use in the design of robots or something else equally
awesome. Ignoring for now that it took me over 6 years to figure this all out,
I'd like to try and explain how I finally got to this point, and where we are
with our understanding of locomotion in these beasts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">All good studies should always start as simply as possible, and
this is certainly where we began. In our earliest studies we compared the
morphology of different species with their retreat site (Thompson et al. 2008).
What we saw is that burrowing species tended to be different, from those that retreat
into tree hollows, as shown in this figure. Well it mostly works, except for V.
mertensi, the water monitor from the North of Australia. Look at him, sitting
in there among the other tree species. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXP0gYTECZfb_Mhz6JVvnhd99VLdjVLz9PJddgHCymK54zfwC4TwFMpk_14CA2N5BICoCixkrc7cynKwdbzl1472aOetnYA68zC2MCLWZ-NAOxgx_Hc8yWgEXvkQQkaZakxywqdD6jTWIo/s1600/Thompson+et+al+2008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXP0gYTECZfb_Mhz6JVvnhd99VLdjVLz9PJddgHCymK54zfwC4TwFMpk_14CA2N5BICoCixkrc7cynKwdbzl1472aOetnYA68zC2MCLWZ-NAOxgx_Hc8yWgEXvkQQkaZakxywqdD6jTWIo/s320/Thompson+et+al+2008.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">But never mind, for most species at
least there is some morphological differences between these groups, which I
interpreted as an adaption between </span><span style="font-size: 18px;">tree-</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">climbing species, and those that spend
their time on the ground. I should mention here that the morphological
differences we did see, were not like those seen in other groups, such as short
legs in climbing species, but no matter I thought, we do see some differences. Great,
so I saw a different in morphology which was related to habitat. Now what?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Well following the paradigm of Arnold (1983), morphology is only
likely to be related to ecology, through its influence on performance
variables, since this is what selection can act upon. Not the shape of an animal<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>per se</i>, but how does that shape
confer an advantage to make it run faster, leap further and do all the other
lizardy things they do. And so this is what we did. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCHE89Ap2OWZxlHxDnmuiagiVL2AMxcWD2OnK7vfzM5yAIf93XUC2314toM1EUKs8m7qi7N_BH5UVkfIqNE8TauXe40hKf8iSf97r35WO_XojfoBjS2PWnV0YuRL7qesdXPJEg3Ke2YNyU/s1600/arnold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCHE89Ap2OWZxlHxDnmuiagiVL2AMxcWD2OnK7vfzM5yAIf93XUC2314toM1EUKs8m7qi7N_BH5UVkfIqNE8TauXe40hKf8iSf97r35WO_XojfoBjS2PWnV0YuRL7qesdXPJEg3Ke2YNyU/s400/arnold.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">We examined the evolution of speed among varanid lizards, which
was related to size, but once we removed this size effect we found no
relationship between speed and climbing ability (Clemente et al. 2009a). We
also checked differences in endurance capacity, but found no differences there
either (Clemente et al. 2009b). So what was going on? What did these
differences in morphology mean, if they didn’t translate into differences in
performance. Well it turns out that they did, but we weren’t looking at the
right performance traits. But before I go into that I’d like to talk about
another project I was working on at the same time. I was interested in how
lizards change their gait as they get bigger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZK6SmU5SPcRSNvv2ZgKD_-se7yVjFmUR9aoV-KYkmpkicgbJDgtuyeWD7o0zRzhNCvbxq6WIL7s2Yl9UxoiExq4OGYtKPioxARy_eTlJjo1rBZ6eXylvx4RsvptVozDvLot4N41eHV5sI/s1600/upright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZK6SmU5SPcRSNvv2ZgKD_-se7yVjFmUR9aoV-KYkmpkicgbJDgtuyeWD7o0zRzhNCvbxq6WIL7s2Yl9UxoiExq4OGYtKPioxARy_eTlJjo1rBZ6eXylvx4RsvptVozDvLot4N41eHV5sI/s400/upright.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">One impressive feature of monitor lizards is their huge variation
in size. So if you were interested in the effects of size on gait, you couldn’t
hope for a better group. The reason we expected gait to change in these
lizards, was a previous study by Andy Biewener (1989) in mammals showed a neat
principal, whereby small animals like cats and mice, had a crouched posture,
but big animals like horses and elephants, had a much more upright posture. The
idea was that bigger animals change their posture to be more upright since this
allows them to support more of their weight along the long axis of the bone, where
compressive stresses dominate, rather than bending the bone in the middle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdmNoEMxhkkpBm2OK74cvjlGNs1CRs0OJc4x8-dXSS6nj5z7pMx_ppHHqA90zBbEywS97L1TybCWCkt3ZpCUsPrTN3WmxW1Zj8r2Eg5I1N7ld5F_mdffrQkEu_sIwN-H83etuoyg-rQ6d/s1600/femur+adduction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdmNoEMxhkkpBm2OK74cvjlGNs1CRs0OJc4x8-dXSS6nj5z7pMx_ppHHqA90zBbEywS97L1TybCWCkt3ZpCUsPrTN3WmxW1Zj8r2Eg5I1N7ld5F_mdffrQkEu_sIwN-H83etuoyg-rQ6d/s320/femur+adduction.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Think about a drinking straw, which is very easy to bend in half,
but much much harder to crush end to end. Anyway, this works really well in
mammals, I thought the same principal must be true for monitor lizards right?
Wrong. I had forgotten which group of lizards I was working with. Monitors are
like that awkwardly developing teenager, who just refuses to assimilate just
out of spite, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when there was no relationship
between upright postures and body size, as seen in this figure above. It varied
from species to species, but not in the way I expected.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggsNibd9thOHJz0NQZaI1bkrPdsrMIJhNpGWaQHzCD0NXGA6iZDu02MeBRUCCzPEICHDBEd3VG7sJObP2E3iJ-6fXibz5G9j8GL7sajcVFCa43KCkgDqBAMUTV82l6-bGdXNf7iygyF32Y/s1600/cartmill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggsNibd9thOHJz0NQZaI1bkrPdsrMIJhNpGWaQHzCD0NXGA6iZDu02MeBRUCCzPEICHDBEd3VG7sJObP2E3iJ-6fXibz5G9j8GL7sajcVFCa43KCkgDqBAMUTV82l6-bGdXNf7iygyF32Y/s320/cartmill.jpg" width="272" /></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">After some searching I did find another possible mechanism through
which lizards could mediate size related stress in limb bones (by changing
femur rotation), but it didn’t explain where the variation in upright posture
was coming from. And that is how I ended up at the current study. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">You see climbing species are faced with certain problems that us
land walking species don’t have to face, the most obvious of which is falling
off the dammed thing you are climbing, to escape whatever douchebag animal is
trying to eat you. One way climbing species avoid falling is by lowering the
body centre of mass which reduces the torque due to gravity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhndq4xRmeaTRmUGx5wnF0gdI0SD5eZpUiXb-YSEAx1JjS5D3yTh3HJOXIPvV07lk6hRuM52A2PrLKs-9wIAn92dzN0uP-Ua_5nPFylcKDzrs4D5E6-klgdJr3dJiDSvG0duMuqaTNV4HI/s1600/CLimbing2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhndq4xRmeaTRmUGx5wnF0gdI0SD5eZpUiXb-YSEAx1JjS5D3yTh3HJOXIPvV07lk6hRuM52A2PrLKs-9wIAn92dzN0uP-Ua_5nPFylcKDzrs4D5E6-klgdJr3dJiDSvG0duMuqaTNV4HI/s400/CLimbing2.jpg" width="300" /></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Becoming less upright is a good way to do this, and this is
certainly what these lizards appeared to be doing. They adopt a sprawling
posture, which is kind of like being forever in the pushup position, close to
the ground. But the variation I had seen in upright posture before, was infact
better represented by whether lizards lived in trees or not. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So part of my problem was solved in that I had figured out where
the variation in posture was coming from, but this created another problem,
speed. You see there are two ways of becoming faster, one is to take longer
steps the other is to take more steps in the same period of time. Becoming more
upright is popular among terrestrial lizards, not only because it looks cool
(check out that cover photo), but also because it increases the effective
length of your limbs and allows you to take longer steps, increasing stride
length and therefore speed. So we looked at the biomechanics of the stride, and
this is exactly what we found among terrestrial monitors. Terrestrial lizards
take longer steps as they run faster. However, climbing lizards, for perpetual
pushup related reasons we talked about above can’t do this, so we might expect
them to be quite a bit slower. But as we saw above this is not the case, there
was no difference in speed between climbing and terrestrial monitors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So how are climbing monitors keeping up with their terrestrial
brethren? Well the answer it seems is that they are changing the other methods
of modifying speed, stride frequency. By taking more steps more often, they
have overcome the problems of staying stable while climbing while at the same
time not sacrificing speed. And so that is the story of Lizard Tricks. There is
still lots to figure out, like whether these climbing lizards, with their different
gaits are actually putting more stress on limb bones, but for now that’s a
problem for future Chris to deal with. </span></div>
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christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-71254031202804249652013-07-19T03:34:00.001-07:002013-07-29T23:33:34.790-07:00Jumping beans in Slow motion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Between 2010 and 2012 I worked at the Rowland institute at Harvard university. Most of my time was spent researching the muscular dynamics of frog muscle, by building robotic frogs, but every now and then we liked to goof off scientifically. That chance came the one day when the head of my workgroup, Chris Richards, brought in a mexican jumping bean. Being from Australia, I had not seen one of these before, and that is sad. Cause they are friken awesome! The bean itself is the seed of a shrub, the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genus" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">genus</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastiania" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sebastiania</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Inside this bean is growing the larve of a little brown moth (<i>Cydia deshaisiana</i>). The moth makes a hollow inside the bean, as it eats the bean from within. But what makes it amazing is that it is able to thermoregulate by moving the bean from hotter places (such as in the sun) to cooler shadier places. It does this by 'jumping' - hence the name. The actual mechanism of how this tiny moth can get the whole bean to jump is unknown, and would probably require some xray cinematography, which sadly we didn't have at the institute. What we do have though, is the next best thing, very sensitive force plates and high speed cameras.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having several dead lines to attend to, i decided the best use of my day, would be to ignore them all and play with the little bean. I set to work on it, and this is what i got out.<br /><br />First i was interested in the amount of ground force the little bean is capable of producing. I used a honeywell force cell to measure it, jumping up from a smooth plastic surface. The force plot is show below.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here the x-axis shows time in ms and the y-axis shows vertical force (in newtons). Peak force was about 0.14N. The body weight of the bean (both worm and seed) was 0.134g therefore, this bean was jumping with a force over 100 times its body weight!!<br /><br />The second thing i noticed in my force traces is there was a smaller first peak, followed by the major peak, about 500 ms later. This was present in almost all of the force traces i got.<br />I decided to use the photron high speed camera (photron FASTCAM SA3 model 60K-M2) to take a look at what was going on and this is what i found. The film is taken at 1500 fps, and is slowed down 60 times.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first peak on the force trace does appear obvious in the movies as a little shuffle backwards, before the main jump. My guess is that the bean is shifting its position inside the shell in preparation for the jump (possibly storing energy) then shifting weight quickly causing the bean to jump up.</span></div>
christoferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615009080339789957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049305693688679709.post-34763226654770024342013-07-19T03:19:00.001-07:002013-07-19T03:49:06.610-07:00Can the water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii) run on water? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can the water dragon (Intellagama </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lesueurii) run on water? </span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have long been impressed with the ability of the South American Basilisk lizard to run on water. There are plenty of videos of it on youtube, for example a short one here. </span><br />
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<object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/_ut5jENqBX8/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_ut5jENqBX8&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_ut5jENqBX8&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its pretty amazing. Looking at this video alone shows as two important aspects of its locomotion, 1) it is able to lift the whole body out of the water, and 2) it is able to do so for quite long stretches (around 10-15m). This ability has been documented quite well by a series of papers by the group at Harvard University, particularly </span><a class="name-search" href="http://jeb.biologists.org/search?author1=S.+Tonia+Hsieh&sortspec=date&submit=Submit" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: 0px; white-space: nowrap;">Tonia Hsieh</a>. <span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They have done some great work, including describing how smaller lizards are better able to support body weight than larger <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/199/12/2611.full.pdf">lizards </a>, modelling 3D <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/101/48/16784.long">forces</a> and recording 3D kinematics of the lizards <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/206/23/4363.long">stride</a>. Below is a gif showing some of the detailed kinematics of the lizard stride which i stole from George Lauders lab webpage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One other important point reported in these papers, based on the description given in Hsieh (2003), is it seems the kinematics change when running on water, such that the limb moves behind the hip, rather than being both infront and behind the hip. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This seems to be shown quite well in the gif above. So given this information on how Basilisk runs on water, we can then ask the question, Can the water dragon also run on water? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was led to believe it may be able to from two dominate and convincing lines of logic. 1) they are water dragons! - it might behoove them to be able to do so and 2) i heard reports of the juvenile lizard being observed doing so from a fellow researcher. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So i modified the lizard racetrack which i have here at the University of Queensland, by placing a short water filled aquarium across their path which they must cross to get to the other side. Then i sat back and filmed them using the fastec high speed camera system. And this is a typical (read absolutely best) result below</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well the first thing i noticed is that they are no basilisk lizards. The body is not held out of the water and progress is significantly slowed. The first step step seems hardly effective at all, and the second step is much deeper, and seems like a breaking step, with the foot held flat. However, the following step seem to have some similarity to those of the basilisk. From steps 3 onwards, the foot does not appear to be pushed as far forward, and much of the stroke seems to be posterior of the hip, as in basilisk. Secondly the trapped air bubbles on the foot are interesting, and these are also observed for basilisk, where they are thought to be the result of tiny fringes along the toes of the south american lizard. Such fringes however, are not obvious in the water dragons. Below is a snapshot of the bubble being dragged down on the trailing edge of the foot. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So i am unsure what to make of this all. If does look like they are capable of some run/swim locomotion, but it certainly falls short of the amazing prowess of the basilisk. These juveniles tend to avoid the sinusoidal swimming pattern, with tucked in arms, as seen in adults. Though the top view does appear to show that this is still employed, in conjunction with the feet, suggesting that this is indeed a uniquely adapted form of locomotion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are some lesser impressive ones. Though notice that the right hind foot is actually brought out of the water - suggesting they could be using surface effects to give more downward force. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlzPNeDK_x1w4eq1Hyw3P8zI-khtMbqq7JBT4KIQEqyxiAGOiJeHGKe0ZoJgWUZLMxTkH4Gdb-LqR1dt68kYxPnxF_v3FxXKu5M9zQNljGg6ObETqFiU6zsDbnGruLRUWFl_ULYFEh6I/s1600/ples11w2_side.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlzPNeDK_x1w4eq1Hyw3P8zI-khtMbqq7JBT4KIQEqyxiAGOiJeHGKe0ZoJgWUZLMxTkH4Gdb-LqR1dt68kYxPnxF_v3FxXKu5M9zQNljGg6ObETqFiU6zsDbnGruLRUWFl_ULYFEh6I/s640/ples11w2_side.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And this one below shows a similar stroke. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVjLijTNR3cPt9taXmusBGYEIItt1JZKFv53fIItvjrMTjDK7e29fRzzj8GODi8MlZata1Ilz-N1_u-Q72Pxzed5b5PRCB5YE88ooWFjVGjBq-F4NJJVbfnqv-KKkDFllLDxEX8Mzh4zU/s1600/ples11w3_side.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVjLijTNR3cPt9taXmusBGYEIItt1JZKFv53fIItvjrMTjDK7e29fRzzj8GODi8MlZata1Ilz-N1_u-Q72Pxzed5b5PRCB5YE88ooWFjVGjBq-F4NJJVbfnqv-KKkDFllLDxEX8Mzh4zU/s640/ples11w3_side.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So that is as far as i have got. Let me know whether you think it is sufficiently interesting to warrant detailed kinematic analysis, or whether you think water dragons are just a little retarded when it comes to running on water. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally i leave you with what happens after several trials and the dragons know the water is coming up. It led me to believe, that for water dragons, they sure do not like water! </span></div>
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