Comments on: How to Turn an Elephant Hindlimb Into a Biomechanical Computer Simulation

By: On the Fifth Day of Freezermas, this blog gave to thee… « What's In John's Freezer?

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:26:13 +0000

[...] The next steps, after we finish the limb segmentation, are to apply the experimental data we observed for greyhounds of comparable size to the model by importing it into biomechanics software (SIMM/OpenSim). We’ve done about 40 models like this for various species. I detailed this procedure for an elephant here. [...]

By: Equine Hindlimb Regional Joint Bone Anatomy

Equine Hindlimb Regional Joint Bone Anatomy — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 04:35:59 +0000

[...] How to Turn an Elephant Hindlimb Into a Biomechanical Computer … We need fancy computer simulations because anatomy, mechanics, physiology, neural control etc. are all very complex and not only impossible to completely measure in a living, moving animal but also extremely unethical and unjustified in the . Above: the hindlimb viewed from the rear, showing the medial (inside) region of the thigh skinned down to the superficial musculature. The gait is the same pattern of footfalls as in a tolting or “running walk” of a horse. [...]

By: A Tale of Two Scales: Big Rhinos and Giant Rhinos « What's In John's Freezer?

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:58:03 +0000

[...] of elephants is quite misleading; they get quite un-columnar, rather crouched, as they attain faster speeds). If this is correct, it would be remarkable, and I can’t definitively show it is incorrect [...]

By: World Rhino Day 2012– Even Frozen Rhinos Need Love « What's In John's Freezer?

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 10:45:04 +0000

[...] test if a particular animal is lame. This follows what we’ve successfully done with elephant gaits and feet, translating basic research into more clinical application. But my main interest is [...]

By: An Anatomist’s View Inside “Animal Inside Out” « What's In John's Freezer?

An Anatomist’s View Inside “Animal Inside Out” « What's In John's Freezer? — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:18:00 +0000

[...] see the elephant. If you know basic anatomy, look at its leg muscles. Check out the huge triceps, still attached to the elbow; I like to say it is the size of a [...]

By: John of the Freezers

John of the Freezers — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:25:57 +0000

Well, I’m sure if you look at any broad set of experimental data you can pick some that you don”t like and dismiss the rest. One bad apple does not spoil a very, very wide and repeatable swath of data. That smacks to me of special pleading. I don’t know how one truly knows FESS “works so well” if one cannot measure it with an independent test of actual strain in vivo. FESS seems very open to investigator influence and confirmation bias, and not truly open to empirical testing.

Anyway, something that will be worked out in the literature over coming years, I’m sure. It worries me that FOR crowd is so sold on FESS and they’re almost alone in that (possible house of cards). The broader theoretical and empirical bone mechanics field seems to remain highly skeptical of many of FESS’s assumptions and published studies. My money is on the latter ending up being more correct but we’ll see!

By: Heinrich Mallison

Heinrich Mallison — Sat, 19 May 2012 06:34:06 +0000

I’ve seen some “trustworthy” data saying bone is subjected to bending – which involved experiments cutting the very fascia that normally transfers the force (temporalis muscle). I really would like to have an explanation why some of the FESS stuff works so well only if you assume pre-loading if there is no pre-loading :confused:

By: John of the Freezers

John of the Freezers — Sat, 19 May 2012 04:56:21 +0000

Well, you know what I think about that assumption; there are so many trustworthy data that falsify it, I do not think it holds much water. But we’ll see. Emu stuff we are doing bears much more strongly on that.

By: Heinrich Mallison

Heinrich Mallison — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:42:44 +0000

It would be quite interesting to take your data and re-run it all with the a priori assumption that muscles act to free the bone of bending loads by pre-loading (the Witzel idea).

By: Carol Robbins

Carol Robbins — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:30:24 +0000

Cool, and thanks for your reply. Your blog is fascinating.