Salamander locomotion as a standing wave

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter bcrowell
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Standing wave Wave
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the locomotion of salamanders and other animals, particularly focusing on the comparison between standing and traveling wave patterns in their movements. Participants reference academic papers and examples from various species, including snakes and millipedes, to explore the mechanics of animal gaits.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant highlights papers by Collins and Stewart discussing symmetry-breaking bifurcation and coupled nonlinear oscillators in animal locomotion, noting the salamander's standing-wave pattern as a unique example.
  • Another participant mentions snake locomotion as an interesting topic related to wave patterns, providing a link to a relevant study.
  • A participant observes that millipedes also exhibit wave-like leg movements, suggesting a broader application of wave mechanics in animal locomotion.
  • There is a claim that most examples of animal locomotion, such as those of earthworms and snakes, involve traveling waves, contrasting with the salamander's standing-wave pattern.
  • One participant proposes that many lizards may also utilize a standing-wave pattern, referencing a blog post as support for this idea.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the prevalence of standing versus traveling wave patterns in animal locomotion. While some acknowledge the uniqueness of the salamander's pattern, others assert that many species primarily exhibit traveling waves.

Contextual Notes

Participants do not fully resolve the definitions of standing and traveling waves in the context of animal locomotion, nor do they clarify the specific conditions under which each pattern occurs.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to students and researchers in biology, biomechanics, and physics, particularly those exploring the mechanics of animal movement and locomotion patterns.

bcrowell
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Insights Author
Messages
6,723
Reaction score
431
I recently came across a couple of very cool papers about animal locomotion:

Collins and Stewart, "Symmetry-breaking bifurcation: A possible mechanism for 2:1 frequency-locking in animal locomotion," J. Math. Biol. (1992) 30:827-838

Collins and Stewart, "Coupled Nonlinear Oscillators and the Symmetries of Animal Gaits," J. Nonlinear Sci. Vol. 3: pp. 349-392 (1993)

PDFs can be found by googling. On p. 34 of the second one is a nifty example that I thought would be of interest to students in the kind of survey course that biology majors have to take. As a salamander crawls, its body wiggles in a standing-wave pattern. A dogfish makes a traveling wave. I thought the salamander example was cool enough that I created a drawing for my online textbook http://www.lightandmatter.com/lm/ (section 20.4).
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Now if you look at millipedes walk, their legs seem to make waves.
 
A.T. said:
Snake locomotion is also interesting in terms of waves:
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/25/10081.full

I just about died laughing when I read the procedure for the friction measurement.

As far as I know, most such examples (earthworms, dogfish, snakes) are traveling waves, not standing waves, and the standing-wave pattern of the salamander is unusual.