Utilising multi-body static simulations to explore the macroevolutionary landscape of perissodactyl locomotion.

Horses are one of the most recognisable mammals alive today, yet they have undergone dramatic changes throughout their evolution. In particular, the forelimb has changed from an ancestral, four-toed horse to the modern one-toed species we know today. To understand the story of the horse limb, we must look at them with respect to other members of the order Perissodactyla. For example, tapirs are living relatives of horses which retain four toes on their forelimbs, similar to extinct horse ancestors. Tapirs and horses therefore represent two polar forelimb morphologies within perissodactyls, from which an investigation into the transition from four-to-one digit in horses can be launched. Modern horses have lost three of their forelimb digits, leaving them with a single digit; however, extinct three-toed horses occurred alongside one-toed horses for many millions of years. The proposed project will use multi-body modelling to compare functionality of the forelimb toes throughout horse evolution, using detailed muscular inputs from modern species. Static musculoskeletal models for the forelimbs of four-, three- and one-toed perissodactyls will be constructed. Once optimised to minimise the muscular outputs, the models will be tested to see which digits are involved in locomotion. This approach represents a first attempt to simulate extinct horse locomotion using musculoskeletal modelling, enabling the inspection of horse limb evolution across a macroevolutionary landscape.

Keywords:HORSES, MUSCULO-SKELETAL SYSTEMS

Disciplines:Animal morphology, anatomy and physiology, Animal systematics and taxonomy, Vertebrate biology, Palaeontology, Phylogeny and comparative analysis

Project type:Collaboration project