Week 8: Energy Cost of Locomotion and Humans in Comparative Context

This week completes the locomotion unit by connecting force demands to the metabolic energy cost of moving, and then places human locomotion in an evolutionary and comparative framework.

Lectures

• Lecture 17: Forces and Energy Cost in Locomotion (Part 2) (35 slides) Walking ground reaction forces; scaling of strength, posture, and EMA with body size; respirometry, the Fick principle, and mass-specific cost of transport; the Kram & Taylor 1/T_c and 1/L_c framework; gait selection in quadrupeds and bipeds; reduced-gravity experiments and real-world wearable studies.

• Lecture 18: Putting Human Locomotion into a Comparative Context (41 slides) Reading cost-of-transport curves; convergent morphological and physiological adaptations for endurance and speed; factorial aerobic scope; the Bramble & Lieberman endurance-running hypothesis; modern Rubenson and Pontzer reappraisals; barefoot vs shod running; head stability and the brain-evolution hypothesis.