Re: DINOSAUR digest 2456

[John R Hutchinson <jrhutch@stanford.edu>]

At 12:06 AM 4/23/2003 -0700, you wrote:
> Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 15:02:35 -0600 (MDT)
> From: Richard W Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
>
> Just out of curiousity, what modeling software has been used on old
> hominids? There has been at least one simulation done that I'm aware of an
> australopithecine walk...

I've seen plenty of animations of extinct hominids but (as for dinosaurs) 
few are based on any "real" mechanistic principles; just the standard "the 
animation looks good therefore it must be right" approach that can be fine 
for entertainment but lacks much scientific basis.  Exceptions would 
include the work by RH Crompton, Li Yu, Sellers, et al. on the "Lucy" 
SIMM/dynamic models (probably the simulation you've seen; they've done a 
lot of stuff), and then a few other attempts that could be called 
"simulations"/models of a sort (i.e., they include some mathematics and the 
use of a computer to do the math), including Christine Berge (several 
papers in J Hum Evol etc.; mostly simple biomechanics a la the classic Owen 
Lovejoy approach); Miller and Gross (J Biomechanics 1998; 31: 355-361; 
again using the SIMM model developed by Delp and others); and then a simple 
biomechanical model used by PA Kramer (J Exp Biol 1999; 202: 2807-2818) to 
model hominid energetics.   That's all I know of offhand.  Some of it's 
still a considerable advance compared to a lot of functional stuff done in 
non-human vert paleo; even Lovejoy's early work from the 70s showed a 
better grasp of biomechanics, anatomy, and experimental studies compared to 
vert paleo then and now.



===========================================
John R Hutchinson
NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Biomechanical Engineering Division
Stanford University
Durand 209, BME
Stanford, CA 94305-4038
http://www.stanford.edu/~jrhutch/fast_elephants/wanalee/index.html
http://tam.cornell.edu/students/garcia/.trex_www/naturepaper.html
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