Leaping

Our interest in leaping dates back almost 15 years with motion capture work on a variety of prosimian primates (Crompton & Sellers 1990; Crompton et al 1992; Sellers & Crompton 1994) and a very early simulator that was used to investigate why some primates (in this case the slender loris) do not leap (Sellers 1996). This interest is being brough up to date by the adoption of field biomechanic techniques to investigate leaping mechanics in free-ranging lemurs (Sellers et al 1998; Sellers & Crompton 2004) using tri-axial accelerometers and branch mounted pressure plates.

Example Leaps

The simulator was constructed using the commercial dynamic analysis software DADS and used to produce a simple leaping model that could be customised to represent different prosimian species.

References

• Sellers WI, Crompton RH. Automatic Monitoring of Primate Locomotor Behaviour Using Accelerometers. Folia Primatologia 2004 75: 279-293 .
• Sellers WI, Varley J, Waters S. Remote locomotor monitoring using accelerometers: a pilot study. Folia Primatologia. 1998 69(S1):82-85.
• Sellers WI. A biomechanical investigation into the absence of leaping in the locomotor repertoire of the Slender Loris (Loris tardigradus). Folia Primatologia. 1996 67(1):1-14.
• Sellers WI, Crompton RH. A system for 2- and 3-D kinematic and kinetic analysis of locomotion, and its application to analysis of the energetic efficiency of jumping in prosimians. Zeitschrift fur Morphologie und Anthropologie. 1994 80(1):99-108.
• Crompton RH, Sellers WI, Gunther MM. Energetic efficiency and ecology as selective factors in the saltatory adaptation of prosimian primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. 1993 254:41-45.
• Sellers WI. A study of leaping in prosimian primates. Liverpool: University of Liverpool, 1992. Ph.D. Thesis.
• Crompton RH, Sellers WI. 3-D computer graphics in the study of adaptation. The Computer Bulletin. 1990 2(5):10-13.